The quest of faith Author:Thomas Bailey Saunders Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE SCEPTICAL ARGUMENT I I Now proceed to examine some of the arguments that have been generally advanced in support of theistic belief. Of th... more »ese one of the most important may be described as partly negative in its character. Theistic belief is urged upon us as the sole escape from the paralysis of sceptical despair. We are told that the existence of God is the only hypothesis which will supply us either with a sure foundation for knowledge, or with a proper standard for the guidance of life. In our own day the argument has been presented in an attractive shape and with some novel accessories in Mr. Arthur Balfour's Foundations of Belief? Whatever may be the value or the logical coherence of that work, there is no disputing the fact of its high significance. That when it firstappeared critics differed as to the service which it was to render to religion was inevitable. There were some who accepted it with a feeling of real enthusiasm, as though it had struck a fresh note. Others, again, more ardent than the rest, hastened to assert that it was about to form a turning-point in the history of theological controversy. The reader will scarcely need to be reminded that similar prophecies have often been made before, and almost as often have miscarried; or that the fate which attends on books gives no warrant to the supposition that those which are ushered in with a blare of trumpets are destined to exercise the most enduring influence. Mr. Balfour's work, although of undeniable distinction, does not, I make bold to say, contain any theories that are both new and true; in the realm of philosophy, indeed, such theories seem hardly any longer possible. But what can be affirmed with tolerable certainty is that no other work of recent publication has brought to its app...« less