Читать книгу The Articles of Faith - James E. Talmage - Страница 9

1. Natural to Believe in a God.—"The great and primary truth 'that there is a God' has obtained among men almost universally and in all ages; so that the holy scriptures, which speak of God in every page, and which advert to the sentiments of mankind for the period of about four thousand years, always assume this truth as admitted. In the early ages of the world, indeed, there is no positive evidence that speculative theism had any advocates; and if, at a subsequent period, the 'fool said in his heart, There is no God,' the sentiment appears more prominent in his affections than in his judgment; and, withal, had so feeble an influence over the minds of men, that the sacred writers never deemed it necessary to combat the error, either by formal arguments, or by an appeal to miraculous operations. Polytheism, not atheism, was the prevailing sin; and therefore the aim of inspired men was not so much to prove the existence of one God, as the non-existence of others—to maintain His authority, to enforce His laws, to the exclusion of all rival pretenders." …

"So clear, full, and overpowering is the evidence of God's existence, that it has commanded general belief in all ages and countries—the only exceptions being a few savage tribes of a most degraded type, among whom the idea of God has faded and disappeared with every vestige of civilization; and a few eccentric would-be philosophers who affect to doubt everything which others believe, and question the truth of their own intuitions, so that the general assent to the being of a God might be added as a testimony of no small weight in this argument."—Cassell's Bible Dictionary; article "God."

2. Importance of Belief in God.—"The existence of a Supreme Being is, without doubt, the sublimest conception that can enter the human mind, and, even as a scientific question, can have no equal, for it assumes to furnish the cause of causes, the great ultimate fact in philosophy, the last and sublimest generalization of scientific truth. Yet this is the lowest demand it presents for our study; for it lies at the very foundation of morality, virtue, and religion; it supports the social fabric, and gives cohesion to all its parts; it involves the momentous question of man's immortality and responsibility to supreme authority, and is inseparably connected with his brightest hopes and highest enjoyments. It is, indeed, not only a fundamental truth, but the grand central truth of all other truths. All other truths in science, ethics, and religion radiate from this. It is the source from which they all flow, the center to which they all converge, and the one sublime proposition to which they all bear witness. It has, therefore, no parallel in its solemn grandeur and momentous issues."—The same.

3. Belief in God, Natural and Necessary.—Dr. Joseph Le Conte, Professor of Geology and Natural History in the University of California, and a scientist of world-wide renown, has spoken as follows:—"Theism, or a belief in God or in gods, or in a supernatural agency of some kind, controlling the phenomena around us, is the fundamental basis and condition of all religion, and is therefore universal, necessary, and intuitive. I will not, therefore, attempt to bring forward any proof of that which lies back of all proof, and is already more certain than anything can be made by any process of reasoning. The ground of this belief lies in the very nature of man; it is the very foundation and groundwork of reason. It is this and this only which gives significance to Nature; without it, neither religion nor science, nor indeed human life, would be possible. For, observe what is the characteristic of man in his relation to external Nature. To the brute, the phenomena of Nature are nothing but sensuous phenomena; but man, just in proportion as he uses his human faculties, instinctively ascends from the phenomena to their cause. This is inevitable by a law of our nature, but the process of ascent is different for the cultured and uncultured races. The uncultured man, when a phenomenon occurs, the cause of which is not immediately perceived, passes by one step from the sensuous phenomenon to the first cause; while the cultured, and especially the scientific man, passes from the sensuous phenomena through a chain of secondary causes to the first cause. The region of second causes, and this only, is the domain of science. Science may, in fact, be defined, as the study of the modes of operation of the first cause. It is evident, therefore, that the recognition of second causes cannot preclude the idea of the existence of God. … Thus, Theism is necessary, intuitive, and therefore universal. We cannot get rid of it if we would. Push it out, as many do, at the front door, and it comes in again, perhaps unrecognized, at the back door. Turn it out in its nobler forms as revealed in Scripture, and it comes in again in its ignoble forms, it may be as magnetism, electricity, or gravity, or some other supposed efficient agent controlling Nature. In some form, noble or ignoble, it will become a guest in the human heart. I therefore repeat, Theism neither requires nor admits of proof. But in these latter times, there is a strong tendency for Theism to take the form of Pantheism, and thereby religious belief is robbed of all its power over the human heart. It becomes necessary, therefore, for me to attempt to show, not the existence indeed, but the personality of Deity. … Among a certain class of cultivated minds, and especially among scientific men, there is a growing sentiment, sometimes openly expressed, sometimes only vaguely felt, that what we call God is only a universal, all-pervading principle animating Nature—a general principle of evolution—an unconscious, impersonal life-force under which the whole cosmos slowly develops. Now, this form of Theism may possibly satisfy the demands of a purely speculative philosophy, but cannot satisfy the cravings of the human heart. … The argument for the personality of Deity is derived from the evidences of intelligent contrivance and design in Nature, or in the adjustment of parts for a definite, and an intelligent purpose. It is usually called 'the argument from design.' The force of this argument is felt at once intuitively by all minds, and its effect is irresistible and overwhelming to every plain, honest mind, unplagued by metaphysical subtleties."—Prof. Joseph Le Conte: in Religion and Science, pp. 12–14.

4. God in Nature.—Sir Isaac Newton, one of the most critical of scientific workers, in writing to his friend Dr. Bentley in 1692, said in reference to the natural universe: "To make such a system, with all its motions, required a Cause which understood and compared together the quantities of matter in the several bodies of the sun and planets, and the gravitating powers resulting from them, the several distances of the primary planets from the sun, and of the secondary ones from Saturn, Jupiter, and the earth; and the velocities with which these planets could revolve about those quantities of matter in the central bodies; and to compare and adjust all these things together in so great a variety of bodies argues the Cause to be not blind and fortuitous, but very well skilled in mechanics and geometry."

5. Natural Indications of God's Existence.—"It may not be, it is not likely, that God can be found with microscope and scalpel, with test-tube or flask, with goniometer or telescope; but with such tools, the student earnestly working, cannot fail to recognize a power beyond his vision, yet a power of which the pulses and the motions are unmistakable. The extent of our solar system once seemed to man more limited than it does at present; and the discovery of the most distant of the planetary family was due to a recognition of an attractive force inexplicable except on the supposition of the existence of another planet. The astronomer, tracing known bodies along their orbital paths, could feel the pull, could see the wire that drew them from a narrower course; he saw not Neptune as he piled calculations sheet on sheet; but the existence of that orb was clearly indicated, and by heeding such indications he sought for it, and it was found. Theory alone could never have revealed it, though theory was incomplete, unsatisfactory without it; but the practical search, instigated by theory, led to the great demonstration. And what is all science but theory compared to the practical influence of prayerful reliance on the assistance of an omnipotent, omniscient power? Disregard not the indications of your science work—the trembling of the needle that reveals the magnetic influence; the instinct within that speaks of a life and a Life-Giver, far beyond human power of explanation or comprehension. As you sit beneath the canopied vault, pondering in the silence of night over the perturbations, the yearnings which the soul cannot ignore, turn in the direction indicated by those impulses, and with the penetrating, space-annihilating, time-annulling glass of prayer and faith, seek the source of that pervading force."—The Author in Baccalaureate Sermon, Utah University Quarterly, Sept., 1895.

6. Theism; Atheism, etc.—According to current usage, Theism signifies a belief in God—the acceptance of one living and eternal Being who has revealed Himself to man. Deism implies a professed belief in God, but denies to Deity the power to reveal Himself, and asserts a disbelief in Christianity; the term is used in different senses, prominent among which are:—(1) belief in God as an intelligent and eternal Being, with a denial of all providential care: (2) belief in God, with denial of a future state of the soul: (3) as advocated by Kant, denial of a personal God, while asserting belief in an infinite force, inseparably associated with matter, and operating as the first great cause. Pantheism regards matter and mind as one, embracing everything finite and infinite, and calls this universal existence God. In its philosophical aspect, pantheism "has three generic forms with variations: (1) one-substance pantheism which ascribes to the universal being the attributes of both mind and matter, thought and extension, as in Spinoza's system: (2) materialistic pantheism which ascribes to it only the attributes of matter, as in the system of Strauss: (3) idealistic pantheism which ascribes to it only the existence of mind as in Hegel's system." In its doctrinal aspect, pantheism comprises "the worship of nature and humanity founded on the doctrine that the entire phenomenal universe, including man and nature, is the ever-changing manifestation of God." Polytheism is the doctrine of a plurality of gods, who are usually regarded as personifications of forces or phenomena of nature. Monotheism is the doctrine that there is but one God. Atheism signifies disbelief in God, or the denial of God's existence; dogmatic atheism denies, while negative atheism ignores, the existence of a God. Infidelity is sometimes used as synonymous with atheism, though specifically the term signifies a milder form of unbelief, manifesting itself in scepticism on matters religious, a disbelief in the religion of the Bible, and of course a rejection of the doctrines of Christianity. Agnosticism holds that God is unknown and unknowable; that His existence can neither be proved nor disproved; it neither affirms nor denies the existence of a personal God; it is the doctrine of "We do not know."—See Standard Dictionary.

7. Idolatrous Practices in General.—The soul of man, once abandoned to depravity, is strongly prone to depart from God and his institutions. "Hence," says Burder, "have arisen the altars and demons of heathen antiquity, their extravagant fictions, and abominable orgies. Hence we find among the Babylonians and Arabians, the adoration of the heavenly bodies, the earliest forms of idolatry; among the Canaanites and Syrians, the worship of Baal, Tammuz, Magog, and Astarte; among the Phœnicians, the immolation of children to Moloch; among the Egyptians, divine honors bestowed on animals, birds, insects, leeks, and onions; among the Persians, religious reverence offered to fire; and among the polished Greeks, the recognition in their system of faith of thirty thousand gods. Hence, moreover, we find at the present time, among most Pagan tribes, the deadliest superstitions, the most cruel and bloody rites, and the most shocking licentiousness and vice, practiced under the name of religion."—History of all Religions, p. 12.

8. Examples of Atrocious Idolatry.—The worship of Moloch is generally cited as an example of the cruelest and most abhorrent idolatry known to man. Moloch, called also Molech, Malcham, Milcom, Baal-melech, etc., was an Ammonite idol: it is mentioned in scripture in connection with its cruel rites (Lev. xviii, 21; xx, 2–5; see also I Kings xi, 5, 7, 33; II Kings xxiii, 10, 13; Amos v, 26; Zephaniah i, 5; Jeremiah xxxii, 35). Keil and Delitzsch describe the idol as being "represented by a brazen statue which was hollow, and capable of being heated, and formed with a bull's head, and with arms stretched out to receive the children to be sacrificed." While the worship of this idol did not invariably include human sacrifice, it is certain that such hideous rites were characteristic of this abominable shrine. The authors last quoted say: "From the time of Ahaz, children were slain at Jerusalem in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and then sacrificed by being laid in the heated arms and burned." (II Kings xxiii, 10; xvi, 3; xvii, 17; xxi, 6; Jer. xxxii, 35; Ezek. xvi, 20, 21; xx, 31; compare Psalms cvi, 37, 38.) Many authorities state that the sacrifice of children to this hideous monster long ante-dated the time of Ahaz. "The offering of living victims was probably the climax of enormity in connection with this system, and it is said that Tophet, where it was to be witnessed, was so named from the beating of drums to drown the shrieks and groans of those who were burned to death. The same place was called the Valley of Hinnom, and the horrible associations connected with it led to both Tophet and Gehenna ('valley of Hinnom') being adopted as names and symbols of future torment." For foregoing facts, and others, see "The Pentateuch" by Keil and Delitzsch, and Cassell's Bible Dictionary.

Scarcely less horrible were the practices of voluntary suicide under the car of the idol Juggernaut, and the drowning of children in the sacred Ganges as found among the Hindoos. According to Burder ("History of all Religions"), the ponderous and hideous image Juggernaut, was, on festival days, usually placed on a movable tower resting on wheels; and, thus mounted, was drawn through the streets by enthusiastic worshipers. As the car moved along, some of the most zealous of the devotees threw themselves under the wheels and were crushed to death; and such acts were "hailed with the acclamations of the multitude as the most acceptable sacrifices." The same author thus describes the rite of child-sacrifice to the sacred river, as formerly practiced in India:—"People in some parts of India, particularly the inhabitants of Orissa, and of the eastern parts of Bengal, frequently offer their children to the goddess Gunga. The following reason is assigned for this practice: When a woman has been long married, and has no children, it is common for the man, or his wife, or both of them, to make a vow to the goddess Gunga, that if she will bestow the blessing of children upon them, they will devote the firstborn to her. If, after this vow, they have children, the eldest is nourished till a proper age, which may be three, four, or more years, according to circumstances when, on a particular day, appointed for bathing in any part of the river, they take the child with them and offer it to the goddess: the child is encouraged to go farther and farther into the water, till it is carried away by the stream, or is pushed off by its inhuman parents."—History of all Religions, pp. 745–746.

The practices of Druidism among the ancient Britons furnish another example of degradation in religion through the absence of authoritative guidance and the light of revelation. The Druids professed a veneration for the oak, and performed most of their distinctive ceremonies in sacred groves. Human sacrifices were offered as a feature of their system. Of their temples, some, e.g. Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, and others in Kent, still remain. These circular enclosures, which were open to the sky, were called doom-rings: near the center of each was an altar (dolmen) on which victims were sacrificed. The horrible ceremonies included on special occasions the burning alive of large numbers of human beings, enclosed in immense cages of wicker-work.

9. Immaterialists are Atheists.—"There are two classes of atheists in the world. One class denies the existence of God in the most positive language; the other denies his existence in duration or space. One says 'There is no God;' the other says 'God is not here or there, any more than he exists now and then.' The infidel says 'God does not exist anywhere.' The immaterialist says 'He exists nowhere.' The infidel says 'There is no such substance as God.' The immaterialist says 'There is such a substance as God, but it is without parts.' The atheist says 'There is no such substance as spirit.' The immaterialist says 'A spirit, though he lives and acts, occupies no room, and fills no space in the same way and in the same manner as matter, not even so much as does the minutest grain of sand.' The atheist does not seek to hide his infidelity; but the immaterialist, whose declared belief amounts to the same thing as the atheist's, endeavors to hide his infidelity under the shallow covering of a few words. … The immaterialist is a religious atheist; he only differs from the other class of atheists by clothing an indivisible unextended nothing with the powers of a God. One class believes in no God; the other believes that Nothing is god and worships it as such."—Orson Pratt, in pamphlet Absurdities of Immaterialism, p. 11.

10. Atheism, a Fatal Belief.—"During the Reign of Terror, the French were declared by the National Assembly to be a nation of atheists; but a brief experience convinced them that a nation of atheists could not long exist. Robespierre then 'proclaimed in the convention, that belief in the existence of God was necessary to those principles of virtue and morality upon which the republic was founded; and on the 7th of May, the national representatives, who had so lately prostrated themselves before the Goddess of Reason, voted by acclamation that the French people acknowledged the existence of the Supreme Being, and the immortality of the soul.'"—Students' France, xxvii, 6; quoted by Rev. Charles E. Little, in Historical Lights, pp. 280–281.

11. The Trinity.—"'Mormonism' affirms its unqualified belief in the Godhead as the Holy Trinity, comprising Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; each of the three a separate and individual personage; the Father and the Son each a personage of spirit and of immortalized body; the Holy Ghost a personage of spirit. The unity of the Godhead is accepted in the literal fulness of scriptural declaration—that the Three are one in purpose, plan, and method; alike in all their Godly attributes; one in their Divine omniscience and omnipotence; yet as separate and distinct in their personality as are any three inhabitants of earth. 'Mormonism' claims that scripture passages declaring the oneness of the Trinity admit of this interpretation; that such indeed is the natural interpretation, and that the conception is in accord with reason."—The Philosophy of "Mormonism," by The Author: Improvement Era, vol. iv, p. 463.

12. The Father and the Son.—In the treatment of the "Personality of Each Member of the Godhead" (p. 41) and "Divine Attributes" (p. 42) no attempt has been made to segregate the references made to The Father and to The Son. It is to be remembered that the Personage most generally designated in the Old Testament as God or the LORD, is He who in the mortal state was known as Jesus Christ, and in the antemortal state as Jehovah. See the author's work, "Jesus the Christ," chap. iv. That Jesus Christ or Jehovah is designated in certain scriptures as the Father in no wise justifies an assumption of identity between Him and His Father, Elohim. This matter has been explained in a publication dated June 30, 1916, entitled "The Father and The Son; a Doctrinal Exposition by the First Presidency and the Twelve." This appeared in Improvement Era, August, 1916, and in a pamphlet of earlier issue. Excerpts therefrom follow: "The term 'Father' as applied to Deity occurs in sacred writ with plainly different meanings. Each of the four significations specified in the following treatment should be carefully segregated.

"1. 'Father' as Literal Parent. … Jesus Christ is the Son of Elohim both as spiritual and bodily offspring; that is to say, Elohim is literally the Father of the spirit of Jesus Christ and also of the body in which Jesus Christ performed His mission in the flesh. …

"2. 'Father' as Creator. A second scriptural meaning of 'Father' is that of Creator, e.g. in passages referring to any one of the Godhead as 'The Father of the heavens and of the earth.' … With this meaning, as the context shows in every case, Jehovah, who is Jesus Christ the Son of Elohim, is called 'the Father.' …

"3. Jesus Christ the 'Father' of those who abide in His Gospel". See Doc. and Cov. xxxiv, 1–3; xxxv, 1, 2; xxxix, 1–4; Mosiah xv, 10–13.

"4. Jesus Christ the 'Father' by Divine Investiture of Authority". See John x. 30; xvii, 11, 22; compare xiv. 28; see further v, 43; x, 26; III Nephi xx, 35; xxviii, 10; and Doc. and Cov. 1, 43.