|
what is indifferent, what dangers arise from each to him who studies or to him who
rejects without study.
Throughout, he is very cautious to mark nothing as unbelief that is not really so; to
admit always those truths of mathematics, logic, and physics that cannot intellectually be
rejected; and only to warn against an attitude of intellectualism and a belief that
mathematicians, with their success in their own department, are to be followed in other
departments, or that all subjects are susceptible of the exactness and certainty of a
syllogism in logic. The damnable errors of the theists are almost entirely in their
metaphysical views. Three of their propositions mark them as unbelievers. First, they
reject the resurrection of the body and physical punishment hereafter; the punishments of
the next world will be spiritual only. That there will be spiritual punishments, al-Ghazzali
admits, but there will be physical as well. Second, they hold that God knows universals
only, not particulars. Third, they hold that the world exists from all eternity and to all
eternity. When they reject the attributes of God and hold that He knows by His essence and
not by something added to His essence, they are only heretics and not unbelievers. In
physics he accepts the constitution of the world as developed and explained by them; only
all is to be regarded as entirely submitted to God, incapable of self-movement, a tool of
which the Creator makes use. Finally, he considers that their system of ethics is derived
from the Sufis. At all times there have been such saints, retired from the worldGod has
|
|
FAILURE OF PHILOSOPHY
|
223 | |
never left himself without a witness; and from their ecstasies and revelations our
knowledge of the human heart, for good and for evil, is derived.
Thus in philosophy he found little light. It did not correspond entirely to his needs,
for reason cannot answer all questions nor unveil all the enigmas of life. He would
probably have admitted that he had learned much in his philosophical studiesso at least
we may gather from his tone; he never speaks disrespectfully of philosophy and science in
their sphere; his continual exhortation is that he who would understand them and refute
them must first study them; that to do otherwise, to abuse what we do not know, brings
only contempt on ourselves and on the cause which we champion. But with his temperament he
could not found his religion on intellect. As a lawyer he could split hairs and define
issues; but once the religious instinct was aroused, nothing could satisfy him but what he
eventually found. And so, two possibilities and two only were before him, though one was
hardly a real possibility, if we consider his training and mental powers. He might fall
back on authority. It could not be the authority of his childish faith, "Our fathers
have told us," he himself confesses, could never again have weight with him. But it
might be some claimer of authority in a new form, some infallible teacher with a doctrine
which he could accept for the authority behind it. As the Church of Rome from time to time
gathers into its fold men of keen intellect who seek rest in submission, and the world
marvels, so it might have been with him. Or again, he might turn
|
|