COSMIC THEISM 



sitions the test of metaphysical congruity only, 

 he naturally regards the possibilities of human 

 thought as fairly representative of the possibil- 

 ities of existence. Accordingly since human in- 

 telligence is the highest mode of Being which 

 we know, — being in the nature of things the 

 highest mode, since it is the mode in which we 

 ourselves exist, and which we must therefore 

 necessarily employ as a norm by which to esti- 

 mate all other modes, — the theologian infers 

 that any higher mode of Being is not only in- 

 conceivable but impossible. And so, when a 

 vast extension of our knowledge of nature shows 

 (or seems to show) that the workings of quasi- 

 human intelligence form but an inadequate and 

 misleading symbol of the workings of Divine 

 Power, it naturally seems to the theologian that 

 we are giving up an " intelligent personality " 

 for a " blind force." 



Here, however, as before, the difficulty is 

 one which theology has created for itself. It is 

 not science, but theology, which conjures up a 

 host of phantom terrors by the gratuitous use 

 of the question-begging epithet " blind force." 

 The use of this, and of the kindred epithet 

 " brute matter," implies that matter and force 

 are real existences, — independent " data ob- 

 jective to " consciousness. Such a view, how- 

 ever, as already shown, cannot be maintained. 

 To the scientific inquirer, the terms " mat- 

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