Is Life Worth Living? by William Hurrell Mallock (the ebook reader .txt) 📖

href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@17201@17201-h@17201-h-6.htm.html#Page_200" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">200 If it is to be cured, it must be faced 200 It takes the form of a suppressed longing for the religious faith that is lost 200 And this longing is wide-spread, though only expressed indirectly 201 It is felt even by men of science 202 But the longing seems fruitless 203 This dejection is in fact shared by the believers 203 And is even authoritatively recognised by Catholicism 204 The great question for the world now, and the one on which its whole future depends, is, will the lost faith ever be recovered? 205 The answer to this will probably have to be decisive, one way or the other 206

CHAPTER IX.
THE LOGIC OF SCIENTIFIC NEGATION.

What gives the denials of positivism their general weight, is the impression that they represent reason 208 They are supported by three kinds of arguments: physical, moral, and historical 209 The two first bear upon all religion; the latter only on special revelations 210 Natural religion is the belief in God, immortality, and the possibility of miracles generally 210 Physical science prefers to destroy natural religion by its connection of mind with matter 210 1st. Making conscious life a function of the brain. 2nd. Evolving the living organisms from lifeless matter. 3rd. Making this material evolution automatic 210 Thus all external proofs of God are destroyed 212 And also of the soul's immortality 213 External proof is declared to be the test of reality 213 And therefore all religion is set down as a dream 215 But we believe that proof is the test of reality, not because it is proved to be so, but because of the authority of those who tell us so 215 But it will be found that these men do not understand their own principle 216 And, that in what they consider their most important conclusions they emphatically disregard it 217 One or other, therefore, of their opinions is worthless—their denial of religion or their affirmation of morality 219 But we shall see this more clearly in considering the question of consciousness and will 220 We shall see that, as far as science can inform us, man is nothing but an automaton 220 But the positive school are afraid to admit this 221 And not daring to meet the question, they make a desperate effort to confuse it 222 Two problems are involved in the matter: 1st. How is brain action connected with consciousness 223 2nd. Is the consciousness that is connected with it something separable from, and independent of it 223 The first of these problems has no bearing at all on any moral or religious question. It is insoluble. It leaves us not in doubt but in ignorance 224 The doubt, and the religious question is connected solely with the second problem 228 To which there are two alternative solutions 228 And modern science is so confused that it will accept neither 228 As Dr. Tyndall's treatment of the subject very forcibly shows us 230 And Dr. Tyndall in this way is a perfect representative of the whole modern positive school 231 Let us compare the molecules of the brain to the six moving billiard-balls 231 The question is, are these movements due to the stroke of one cue or of two 233 The positive school profess to answer this question both ways 234 But this profession is nonsense 236 What they really mean is, 1st. That the connection of consciousness with matter is a mystery; as to that they can give no answer. 2nd. That as to whether consciousness is wholly a material thing or no, they will give no answer 237 But why are they in this state of suspense? 238 Though their system does not in the least require the hypothesis of an immaterial element in consciousness 239 They see that the moral value of life does 239 The same reasons that will warrant their saying it may exist, will constrain them to say it must 240 Physical science, with its proofs, can say nothing in the matter, either as to will, immortality, or God 242 But, on the other hand, it will force us, if we believe in will, to admit the reality of miracles 243 So far as science goes, morality and religion are both on the same footing 243

CHAPTER X.
MORALITY AND NATURAL THEISM.

Supposing science not to be inconsistent with theism, may not theism be inconsistent with morality? 247 It seems to be so; but it is no more so than is morality with itself. Two difficulties common to both:—1st. The existence of evil; 2nd. Man's free will and God's free will 248 James Mill's statement of the case represents the popular anti-religious arguments 249 But his way of putting the case is full of distortion and exaggeration 250 Though certain of the difficulties he pointed out were real 251 And those we cannot explain away; but if we are to believe in our moral being at all, we must one and all accept 252 We can escape from them by none of the rationalistic substitutes for religion 252 A similar difficulty is the freedom of the will 257 This belief is an intellectual impossibility 258 But at the same time a moral necessity 260 It is typical of all the difficulties attendant on an assent to our own moral nature 260 The vaguer difficulties that appeal to the moral imagination we must meet in the same way 261

CHAPTER XI.
THE HUMAN RACE AND REVELATION.

Should the intellect of the world return to theism, will it ever again acknowledge a special revelation? 264 We can see that this is an urgent question 265 By many general considerations 265 Especially the career of Protestantism 267 Which is visibly evaporating into a mere natural theism 268 And, as such, is losing all restraining power in the world 271 Where then shall we look for a revelation? Not in any of the Eastern creeds 275 The claims of the Roman Church are the only ones worth considering 276 Her position is absolutely distinct from that of Protestantism, and she is not involved in its fall 277 In theory she is all that the enlightened world could require 279 The only question is, is she so in practice? This brings us to difficulties 282 1st. The partial success of her revelation; and her supposed condemnation of the virtues of unbelievers. But her partial success is simply the old mystery of evil 282 And through her infinite charity, she does nothing to increase that difficulty 283 The value of orthodoxy is analogous to the value of true physical science 285 All should try to learn the truth who can; but we do not condemn others who cannot 286 Even amongst Catholics generally no recondite theological knowledge is required 287 The facts of the Catholic religion are simple. Theology is the complex scientific explanation of them 288 Catholicism is misunderstood because the outside world confuses with its religion—1st. The complex explanations of it 289 2nd. Matters of discipline, and practical rules 290 3rd. The pious opinions, or the scientific errors of private persons, or particular epochs 291 None of which really are any integral part of the Church 293 Neither are the peculiar exaggerations of moral feeling that have been prevalent at different times 293 The Church theoretically is a living, growing, self-adapting organism 295 She is, in fact, the growing, moral sense of mankind organised and developed under a supernatural tutelage 295

CHAPTER XII.
UNIVERSAL HISTORY AND THE CLAIMS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

We must now consider the Church in relation to history and external historical criticism 297 1st. The history of Christianity; 2nd. The history of other religions 298 Criticism has robbed the Bible of nearly all the supposed internal evidences of its supernatural character 298 It has traced the chief Christian dogmas to non-Christian sources 300 It has shown that the histories of other religions are strangely analogous to the history of Christianity 300 And to Protestantism these discoveries are fatal 302 But they are not fatal to Catholicism, whose attitude to history is made utterly different by the doctrine of the perpetual infallibility of the Church 305 The Catholic Church teaches us to believe the Bible for her sake, not her for the Bible's 305 And even though her dogmas may have existed in some form elsewhere, they become new revelations to us, by her supernatural selection of them 306 The Church is a living organism, for ever selecting and assimilating fresh nutriment 307 Even from amongst the wisdom of her bitterest enemies 309 All false revelations, in so far as they have professed to be infallible, are, from the Catholic standpoint, abortive Catholicisms 311 Catholicism has succeeded in the same attempt in which they have failed 313

CHAPTER XIII.
BELIEF AND WILL.

The aim of this book 315 Has been to clear the great question as to man's nature, and the proper way of regarding him, from the confusion at present surrounding it 317 And to show that the answer will finally rest, not on outer evidence, but on himself, and on his own will, if he have a will 319

NOTE.

In this book the words 'positive,' 'positivist,' and 'positivism' are of constant occurrence as applied to modern thought and thinkers. To avoid any chance of confusion or misconception, it will be well to say that these words as used by me have no special reference to the system of Comte or his disciples, but are applied to the common views and position of the whole scientific school, one of the most eminent members of which—I mean Professor Huxley—has been the most trenchant and contemptuous critic that 'positivism' in its narrower sense has met with. Over 'positivism' in this sense Professor Huxley and Mr. Frederic Harrison have had some public battles. Positivism in the sense in which it is used by