Where is he? Show him to us. If you cannot show him
to us as flesh and blood, show him as flesh and sap; show him as a living
cell; show him as protoplasm. Lower than this we should not fairly go;
it is not in the bond or _nexus_ of our ideas that something utterly
inanimate and inorganic should scheme, design, contrive, and elaborate
structures which can make mistakes: it may elaborate low unerring things,
like crystals, but it cannot elaborate those which have the power to err.
Nevertheless, we will commit such abuse with our understandings as to
waive this point, and we will ask you to show him to us as air which, if
it cannot be seen yet can be felt, weighed, handled, transferred from
place to place, be judged by its effects, and so forth; or if this may
not be, give us half a grain of hydrogen, diffused through all space and
invested with some of the minor attributes of matter; or if you cannot do
this, give us an imponderable like electricity, or even the higher
mathematics, but give us something or throw off the mask and tell us
fairly out that it is your paid profession to hoodwink us on this matter
if you can, and that you are but doing your best to earn an honest
living."
We may fancy Paley as turning the tables upon us and as saying; "But you
too have admitted a designer--you too then must mean a designer with a
body and soul, who must be somewhere to be found in space, and who must
live in time.
Pages:
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162