Natural theology now claims as its field of investiga- tion not only the whole natural world, but also the physical, intellectual, and moral nature of m.in.
2. Claims as a Science.— It being now conceded by all that the present order of things had a beginning— iu
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this sense, at least, that there was a time when not a sin- gle species of plants or animals now upon the earth had an existence, in fact that there was a time when there was no living thing upon the earth— it is a fair question to ask. How came all these animals and plants here, with all their complex relations for the continuance of the species? How came man here? The hypothesis that living species have always existed as they now are being abandoned, two other hypotheses only seem possible : (1) That animals and plants have been pro- duced as the resultants of forces eternally inherent in matter; (2) That they have been produced by the de- sign and organizing power of a personal being. Both of these hypotheses have their supporters, though those who accept the latter by no means agree as to the meth- od in which creative power has been manifested in the production of species. It is certain that the large majority of students of nature have seen, in its different departments, such combinations to produce specitic re- sults, such likeness to the works of man — contrivances ditfering from his only in their grandeur and perfection —that they have believed in a being who has origi- nated, by some method, all the living things upon the earth. The existence of man is taken as proof of the existence of a being like him in the elements of per- sonality, though infinitely above him in wisdom and power. It is claimed that belief in the existence of a personal God is reached by the same process of thought by which every science has been built up, and by which ail the conclusions in common life are reached; that the necessary principles of belief, careful investigation, and sound induction all aid in proving the existence of a personal Creator from the works of nature. It is claim- ed that no scientific process has been more legitimate, and no inference in actual life more in accordance with the common-sense wisdom of the world, than the in- vestigations and the results reached in natural theology. This claims, therefore, a place among the sciences, re- lying upon the nature of the processes by which its conclusions are reached. Its claim has been, and still is, admitted by a large majority of the ablest students of nature and of man.
That natural theology, as it has now been defined, has any just claim to scientific rank is utterly denied by a class of philosophers, positivists, who seek to limit all investigation to observed phenomena, ignoring or denying both efficient and final causes; and also by those who, without denying the abstract doctrine of final causes, affirm that we have no evidence of final cause in the works of nature. They regard the adapta- tion which we see in nature simply as the result of ma- terials and forces mutually limited in producing the ex- isting forms. The conclusions of such writers are well expressed in the words of Blichner: "Our reflecting reason is the sole cause of this apparent design, which is nothing but the necessary consequence of the com- bination of natural materials and forces" (^Force and Mutter, p. 90).
3. Arguments. — (1.) The history of the race proves that there has been at all times and in all places, ex- cept among the most degraded tribes, some notion of God, or gods, or some supernatural agents to be feared and worshipped. It is claimed by 8ir John Lubbock and others that the most degraded tribes are without any notion of a Supreme Being; and it is asserted that deaf mutes are in the same condition till they are in- structed. Granting all the facts stated, the conclusions may be fairly questioned. It does not follow that there is no idea of God present in the mind because it has not forced its way up into language, or because it cannot be detected in our imperfect intercourse with degraded savages and uneducated mutes. So constantly has the notion of a God appeared in all ages, that it has been claimed by some that the idea of God is innate. This doctrine, at the present time, is accepted only in this modified form, if at all, that the capabilities of the hu- man mind are such that in its perfect development the
idea of God is surely reached in the study of nature and man.
An a priori proof of the existence of God has been accepted by some, from the supposed power of the hu- man mind to form a conception of a perfect being. The inference is made from such a power of the mind that a being must exist to correspond to the conceptions of it. This argument in some of its forms has been ac- cepted and enforced by Des Cartes, Leibnitz, Dr. Samuel Clarke, and other eminent philosophers. As it involv.es subtile metaphysical distinctions, it is certainly not fit- ted to impress the popular mind ; and it has failed to sat- isfy such acute metaphysicians as Eeid and Stewart, who surel}- could not be charged with undue scepticism.