CHAPTER X. COMMON SENSE APPLIED TO GAIN THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

Having explained what is intended by the principles of common sense, the next attempt will be to apply certain of these principles to gain a system of _natural religion_; meaning by this term that religion which may be gained from the _works_ of the Creator independently of any revealed Word.

In all systems of religion the first article relates to the existence and character of the Deity to be worshiped and obeyed. The first principle of common sense to guide us in this inquiry is this:

Every change has a producing cause.

In the widest sense of the word, _cause_ signifies something as an antecedent, without which a given change will not occur, and with which it will occur. This is the leading idea in every use of this word.

Then there are two classes of causes; the first are _necessary_ or _producing causes_, and the second _occasional causes_.

A _producing cause_ is an antecedent which _produces_ a given change.

_Occasional causes_ are those circumstances which are indispensable to the action of producing causes.

Thus, fire applied to powder is the producing cause of an explosion, while the placing of the two together is the occasional cause of it.

The idea of a producing cause is one which probably is gained when we first discover that our own will moves our own limbs and other things around us. When we will to move a thing, and find the intended change follows our volition to move it, then we can not help believing that our own mind _produced_ this change. At the same time we gain the idea of _power_ to produce this change, and the belief also that the thing changed had _no power_ to refrain from the change.

Our only mode of defining the idea of a _producing cause_, of _power_ and of _want of power_, is to refer to occasions when, by willing, we cause changes, and thus become conscious of the existence and nature of these ideas by experience.

So also we have no mode of defining our _sensations_ but by stating the occasions in which we are conscious of them. For instance, _whiteness_ is the sensation we have when we look at snow, and _blackness_ is the sensation we have when we look at charcoal.

The same idea of causation and power in ourselves which we have when we make changes by our will, we always connect with any thing which by experiment and testimony we find, in given circumstances, to be an invariable antecedent of a given change. Our minds are so made, that whenever we find an _invariable_ antecedent of a given change, we can not help believing that this antecedent _produced_ the change, just as we believe our own will produces changes in our bodies and in things around us. And if any person were to talk and act as if lie did not believe this, be would be regarded as having “lost his reason.”

Moreover, whenever men, by frequent experiments, find that a given change is _invariably_ preceded by a certain antecedent, they can not help believing that the antecedent has _power_ to produce this change, and that the thing changed has _no power_ to do otherwise. This idea of _power_ and _want of power_ always exists whenever men find an _invariable_ antecedent to some change. It is by finding what are thus invariably connected as antecedents and consequents that men learn what are _causes_, and what are _effects_, and what are the _powers_ of things around us.

Here, then, we have these as principles of common sense believed by all men, viz.:

1. Every change (in matter or mind) has a producing cause as an antecedent.

2. Every invariable antecedent of an invariable sequent is a _producing_ cause, and the thing changed has no power to refrain from that change.

3. A producing cause, in appropriate circumstances, has power to make a given change.

Now every man, however unlearned, can judge for himself whether these principles of common sense exist in his own mind, as here set forth. For example, let any person take a magnet and discover, day after day, that when it is placed near a piece of iron it draws it to itself; let him find also, by testimony from others, that this is _invariable_ and fails in not a single instance, and the inevitable result is a belief that the magnet is the _cause_ of the moving of the iron, just as the mind is the cause of the movement of our bodies. So also there is a belief that the magnet, in given circumstances, has _power_ to move the iron, as our will has power to move our body. So also there is a belief that the piece of iron, in the given circumstances, has _no power_ to refrain from being thus attracted.

We see, then, that it is a universal fact, that when there is a change of any thing, or any new mode of existence, every sane man believes there is some _producing cause_ of this change. Even the youngest child exhibits this principle as a part of its mental organization. And should a person be found who was destitute of a belief in this truth, so that he should talk and act as if things came into existence and were changing places and forms without any causes, he would be called insane, or a man who had “lost his reason.”

Our minds being endowed with this principle, we find the world around us to be a succession of changes which we trace back to preceding causes, until we come to the grand question, “Who, or what first started this vast system of successive changes?” Only two replies are conceivable. The first is that of the Atheist, who, contradicting his own common sense, maintains that, in some past period, all this vast system of organization and changes began to exist without any cause. The other reply is, that there is a great, eternal, self‐existent _First Cause_, who himself never began to be, and who is the author of all finite existences. This being, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, we call God.

The next principle of common sense is that by which we gain a knowledge of the natural attributes of the Creator. It is this:

_Design_ or _contrivance_ to secure a given end, is proof of an _intelligent_ designer, and the _nature_ of a design proves the intention and character of its author.

The mind, as has been shown, is so formed that it can not believe that any existence can commence without some antecedent cause. The existence of _unorganized_ matter, however, would be no proof that the cause was an _intelligent mind_.

But when any existence is discovered where there is an adjustment of parts, all conducing to accomplish some determinate end, no person can examine and understand its nature and adaptations without the accompanying belief that the cause of that contrivance was a mind endowed with the capacity of adjusting means to accomplish an end, and thus an _intelligent_ mind.

Nor is it possible, when the object which any design is fitted to accomplish is clearly discovered, to doubt the _intention_ of the designer. We can not help believing that it was the intention of the contriver to accomplish the end for which his contrivance is fitted.

As an example to illustrate the existence of these principles, even in the simplest minds, if a savage should find in the desert a gold watch, nothing could lead him to believe that it sprang into existence there without any cause. If he should open it and perceive the nice adjustment of the wheels and all its beautiful indications of contrivance, he could not believe that the mind of an animal, or that any but an intelligent mind constructed its machinery. If he should have all its movements explained to him, and learn how exactly all were fitted to mark the passage of time, it would be equally impossible to convince him that the contriver did not design it for such a purpose.

Very early childhood gives evidence of the existence of these principles. An interesting instance of this is recorded by a celebrated philosopher, who, to test the existence of these principles in the mind of his child, planted a bed with seeds arranged in the form of the letters which spelled the child’s name. When the green symbols had sprung from the ground and were discovered by the delighted child, the father in vain endeavored to force his belief that the letters came without _a cause_ and without _a design_. “No, father. _Somebody_ planted them; somebody _intended_ to have them come up and spell my name!” And thus infancy itself maintains the principles which are our guide to the Great Source of all finite existences.

Another principle of common sense lends us still further aid in arriving at the natural attributes of the Creator. It is this:

Things are and will continue according to our past experience till there is evidence of a change.

All the business of life rests on a belief of this truth. Our confidence that the sun will rise, the seasons return, the ocean and rivers flow, the mountains remain; and in thousands of other things that regulate our plans and conduct, all depends on this implanted belief that things will continue according to our past experience till there is evidence of a change. A man who acted as if he disbelieved this principle would be regarded as having “lost his reason.”

When, therefore, we have gained the idea that the Creator is an _intelligent mind_, we necessarily believe that his mind is _such as we have ever known in past experience_, that is, a mind _like our own_, endowed with reason, intellect, susceptibilities and will. We can not conceive of any other kind of mind, because we have never had any experience or knowledge of any other kind.

The only respect in which we can conceive of the Creator as differing from our own minds is in the _extent_ of those natural faculties which are exhibited in his works.

Thus by the use of the principles of common sense we have gained the positions that there is a Being who is the Author of all finite existences, whose mind is like our own in natural faculties, while in the extent of these faculties, as exhibited in his works, he is far beyond our conceptions.