LIFE AS MECHANISM 



clergy who accept the literal interpretation of the 

 Bible and the atheist who denies God; he rejects both 

 the materialism and the idealism of the philosopher. 

 He tells us, emphatically, that it is useless to discuss 

 the nature of God, of life, of matter, of energy, or of 

 anything because, by his nature, man can have no ab- 

 solute knowledge and is limited to the acquisition of 

 knowledge by comparing phenomena. The wise man 

 will maintain an agnostic mind: "It is wrong for a 

 man to say that he is certain of the objective truth 

 of any proposition unless he can produce evidence 

 which logically justifies that certainty. This is what 

 Agnosticism asserts; and, in my opinion, it is all that 

 is essential to Agnosticism. That which Agnostics deny 

 and repudiate, as immoral, is the contrary doctrine, 

 that there are propositions which men ought to be- 

 lieve, without logically satisfactory evidence,"^ In 

 this fashion only, can we avoid the -isnis which arise 

 out of the schools of philosophy as the Truth. This 

 definition sounds admirably clear and it would seem 

 that the Agnostic could never be convicted of error, 

 although he might not be able to add any positive 

 knowledge to the world. But what are these "object- 

 ive truths" and what is the "evidence which logically 

 justifies that certainty"? I am sure Huxley would 

 have agreed that objective knowledge is derived by 

 our sense perceptions and he, with all of us, knew 

 how easily deceived our senses are; he also would 



^Science and Christian Tradition, p. 310. 



C 257 1 



