God the Known and God the Unknown - PDF by Samuel Butler

download God the Known and God the Unknown - PDF by Samuel Butler

God the Known and God the Unknown

God the Known and God the Unknown

 

From the introduction:

MANKIND has ever been ready to discuss matters in the inverse ratio of their importance so that the more closely a question is felt to touch the hearts of all of us, the more incumbent it is considered upon prudent people to profess that it does not exist, to frown it down, to tell it to hold its tongue, to maintain that it has long been finally settled so that there is now no question concerning it. 

So far, indeed, has this been carried through all time past that the actions which are most important to us, such as our passage through the embryonic stages, the circulation of our blood, our respiration, etc. etc., have long been formulated beyond all power of reopening question concerning them the mere io God the Known and Unknown fact or manner of their being done at all being ranked among the great discoveries of recent ages. 

Yet the analogy of past settlements would lead us to suppose that so much unanimity was not arrived at all at once, but rather that it must have been preceded by much smouldering discontent, which again was followed by open warfare; and that even after a settlement had been ostensibly arrived at, there was still much secret want of conviction on the part of many for several generations. 

There are many who see nothing in this tendency of our nature but an occasion for sarcasm; those, on the other hand, who hold that the world is by this time old enough to be the best judge concerning the management of its own affairs will scrutinise this management with some closeness before they venture to satirise it; nor will they do so for long without finding justification for its apparent recklessness; for we must all fear responsibility upon matters about which we feel we know but little; on the other hand we must all continually act, and for the most part promptly. 

Contents

Prefatory Note .... 7

I. Introduction 9

II. Common Ground . . . .18

III. Pantheism I 22

IV. Pantheism II 32

V. Orthodox Theism . . . .42

VI. The Tree of Life . . . .53

VII. The Likeness of God . . .64

VIII. The Life Everlasting ... 74

IX. God the Unknown . . . . 83

the book details :

Author: Samuel Butler was an English novelist and critic, best known for the satirical utopian novel Erewhon

Publication date:1909

Company London A.C. Fifield

---

Download God the Known and God the Unknown - 4.5 MB - 100 pages