KNOWLEDGE GAINED BY REASON AND EXPERIENCE

Too Long; Didn't Read

We have shown that, in regard to our Creator, his character and designs, without a revelation, we have nothing to guide us but the intuitive truths, and the deductions obtained by their aid from human experience. We will now inquire as to the amount of knowledge to be secured from these sources. By the aid of the first intuitive truth, we arrive at the knowledge of some great First Cause or causes, existing without beginning, who created the universe of matter and mind; yet, as has been shown, we are not, by this first principle, enabled to infer any thing as to the unity or plurality of such cause or causes. For aught that this intuitive truth indicates, there may have been a plurality of eternal and self-existent minds, who acted in unity at the creation of all things. Neither can we, by the aid of this truth, arrive at any conclusion as to the character and designs of the author or authors of all created things. It is by the aid of the fourth intuitive truth that we deduce whatever can be known of the character and designs of the Creator. {48}This truth teaches us that "design is evidence of an intelligent cause, and that the nature of a design proves the intention and character of the author." The works of Nature, both of mind and matter, are full of evidence of design, and from this we infer that the Creator is an intelligent cause.