24 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



influenced by any belief in a God or a hereafter ; hence 

 the term " Secularism ". 



If we ask why they assumed this attitude, it would 

 seem, as far as Mr. Brad laugh was concerned, from his 

 treatises Is there a God} and A Plea for Atheism, etc., 

 that it was the study of metaphysics which led him 

 astray. Thus, after a long discussion as to the nature 

 of God — in whom he did not believe — he emerges with 

 the following conclusions : that " God cannot be intelli- 

 gent," " can never perceive anything," " He cannot re- 

 collect or forget," " He cannot have the faculty of 

 judgment " and " He cannot think ". 



It is generally considered to be impossible "to prove 

 a negative " ; but Mr. Bradlaugh did it to his own satis- 

 faction, although he professes not to know what one 

 means by the word " God ". 



It seems that the absence of anything of the nature of 

 objective proof of the existence of God was the cause 

 of the atheistic view in the seventies ; and this is still 

 maintained to-day. Thus the anonymous author of Mr. 

 Balfour s Apologetics, to whom I shall refer again, says 

 nothing can come under the head of Knowledge which 

 does not fall within observation and experiment. 



This demand is obviously unreasonable, nor is it fair ; 

 for no force or energy comes within " observation ". 

 Gravitation, heat, electricity, etc., are unknown in their 

 nature, but recognisable only by their effects. More- 

 over, one man's consciousness is only inferred by another, 

 by his acts. It is inductive not expcrinietital evidence 

 upon which such "knowledge" is based. Consequently 

 in " proving " the existence of God from Nature's works 

 we have no other than inductive evidence or the ac- 

 cumulation of coincidences and probabilities ; so that 

 when they are fully grasped by the mind they form a 



