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from Mr. McCabe, has throughout his life been one of the ablest opponents of agnosticism and nothing less than scornful of a profession of atheism. There is the force of conclusiveness in his remarks, and, although one might not agree with him in all respects concerning his notions about religion, still it is impossible to hold that the universe is the result of a direct volition on the part of a man-like, purposive creator. But the theologian might now shift his ground and ask, granting that the world was never created by a Supreme Intelligence, does the failure of theism to prove it to be the outcome of a creative design, or effort, on the part of a creator entitle any one to say, since an impartial study of the evolution of the world teaches us that there is no definite aim and no special purpose to be traced in it, there seems to be no alternative but to leave everything to blind chance? How do we know that there is no other alternative? We must take the position of the materialist in its entirety, and see if he can maintain it with his dead, unconscious matter and lifeless force. Is it compatible with the notion of dead existence or existences to postulate that the evolutionary agencies could take but the one direction which they have actually taken? Why could they not take any other? Where were the rails to guide the tram-car of matter and force?
Such is the nature of the new ground taken up by theology from which it has to be dislodged before further progress can be made in scientific thought.
The question is, what is the guiding principle which ensures regularity of phenomena in nature? A certain class of philosophers, no doubt, maintain that it is
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