No such God can be believed to exist by reasoners who rigidly abide by
John Locke's rule of philosophising, and if it be urged that he, the
author of the rule, was a Theist and a Christian--our answer is, that in
such case, like many other philosophers, he practically gave the lie to
his own best precept.
Books have been written to exhibit the difficulties of (what priests
choose to call) Infidelity; and without doubt unbelief _has_ its
difficulties. But according to a universally recognised rule of
philosophising, of two difficulties we are in all cases to choose the
least. From a rule so palpably just no one can reasonably depart, and
the Atheist, while freely admitting a great difficulty on his own side,
is satisfied there can be demonstrated an infinitely greater difficulty
on the side of his opponents. The Atheist labours to convince mankind
they are not warranted by the general course of Nature in assigning to
it a Cause, inasmuch as it is more in accordance with experience to
suppose Nature the uncaused cause, than to imagine, as religionists do,
that there is an uncaused cause of Nature.
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