The collapse of scientific atheism / by J.M. Winn.

  • Winn, James M. (James Michell), 1808-1900
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The collapse of scientific atheism / by J.M. Winn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    T bis opponents in the Fortnightly Review* he dogmatically asserts that “the conclusion of pure intellect points this way [to scientific atheism] and no other I” We will proceed to> show that the reasoning on which he and others attempt to establish their infidel doctrines, is, like that of the rest of the school, not the expression of pure intellect, but rather the visionary speculation of those who have allowed their judgment to fall asleep, and given unbounded reins to their fancy. We presume Dr. Tyndall would call this “ the scientific use of the imagination but the question at issue is of such vital importance, that the imagination, however useful in framing scientific hypotheses, must be kept in abeyance, and in the present inquiry we shall take nothing for granted at the hands of our adversaries, but rely solely on the evidence of absolute facts. We would premise the observations which we are about to make, before entering upon details, with the fundamental axioms, that admit of no reasonable doubt, that there can be no laws without a lawgiver, and no effect without a cause. Now, all scientific atheists admit that the universe is regulated by laws, but by a strange perversion of reason- ing they ignore a Lawgiver. They also deny a superin- tending Providence. If a clock of human construction requires careful supervision, is it incredible that the vast wheels of the universe, which revolve with more than chronometer-like pre- cision, should require to be guided by a Being of infinite intel- ligence and power ? We would be the last to limit the power of the Creator, and it is quite conceivable, as has been often suggested, that the machinery of the universe was created in such a manner that it could go on for ever without further help. It is an authenticated fact| that there is a constant dissipation of energy from the sun; that its beat is constantly passing away into space, and no compensation has yet been discovered. Who can restore this lost energy save He who first called it forth ? But the Positivists believe that the so-called physical energies now in operation on the earth are all-sufficient, and do not need constant renewal, and that there is therefore no Almighty Force required above them all. But surely faith in an eternal omnipotent power is more con- sonant with the common sense of mankind than the atheistical doctrine that the laws and physical forces of the universe are eternal and unalterable. * For November 1875. f Mr. Justice Grove, the highest authority on the subject of Conservation of Energy, in his Address before the meeting of the British Association in 1866, stated that the sun and the planets were incessantly radiating heat into space, and that science had not yet shown how the energy can be restored.