Detalii
Încărcaţi Docx
Citiţi mai multe
CHAPTER IV. SOCRATES PROVES THE EXISTENCE OF A DEITY [GOD] “‘Do not you think then,’ replied Socrates, ‘that the first Former [Creator] of mankind designed their advantage when He gave them the several senses by which objects are apprehended; eyes for things visible, and ears for sounds?’ ‘In short, these things being disposed in such order, and with so much care, can you hesitate one moment to determine whether it be an effect of providence or of chance?’ ‘I doubt not of it in the least,’ replied Aristodemus, ‘and the more I fix my thoughts on the contemplation of these things the more I am persuaded that all this is the masterpiece of a great workman, who bears an extreme love to men.’” “‘This is not all,’ said Socrates, ‘answer me yet farther; perhaps you would rather interrogate me. You are not, I persuade myself, ignorant that you are endowed with understanding; do you then think that there is not elsewhere an Intelligent Being? Particularly, if you consider that your body is only a little earth taken from that great mass which you behold. The moisture that composes you is only a small drop of that immense heap of water that makes the sea; in a word, your body contains only a small part of all the elements, which are elsewhere in great quantity. […] and can it then be said that all this universe and all these so vast and numerous bodies have been disposed in so much order, without the help of an Intelligent Being, and by mere chance?’ ‘Nor do you see your soul neither,’ answered Socrates, ‘which governs your body; but, because you do not see it, will you from thence infer you do nothing at all by its direction, but that everything you do is by mere chance?’”
