But while the deity is in one sense the most mysterious of all objects of knowledge, in another sense, he is the most luminous. No idea impresses universal man as the idea of God. Neither space nor time, neither matter or mind, neither life nor death, not sun, moon or stars, so influence the immediate consciousness of man in every clime and in all his generations, as does the "Presence" which, in Wordsworth's phrase, "is not to be put by". This idea of ideas overhangs human existence like the firmament, and though clouds and darkness obscure it in many zones, while in others it is crystalline and clear, all human beings must live beneath it, and cannot possible get from under its all-embracing arch. The very denial of the Divine Existence evinces by its eagerness and effort, the firmness with which the idea of God is entrenched in man's constitution. A chimera or a nonentity would never evoke such a passionate antagonism as is expressed in the reasonings of atheism.
From Dogmatic Theology by W. G. T. Shedd p. 57 (Klock & Klock 1979 reprint).
No comments:
Post a Comment