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5 - Types of Ethical Earnestness I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2009

Maurice Cowling
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Summary

‘The present anarchy of politics arises from the anarchy of ideas. The ancient faiths are shaken where they are not shattered. The new faith which must replace them is still to come. What Europe wants is a Doctrine which will embrace the whole system of our conceptions, which will satisfactorily answer the questions of Science, Life, and Religion; teaching us our relations to the World, to Duty, and to God.’

G. H. Lewes Comte's Philosophy of the Sciences 1853 p. 12.

‘They who, dissatisfied with this little world of sense, seek to raise their minds to something which the senses are unable to grasp, can hardly fail, on deeper reflection, to perceive how coarse and material is that theological prejudice, which ascribes to such a Power the vulgar functions of a temporal ruler … and represents him as meddling … uttering threats, inflicting punishments, bestowing rewards. These are base and grovelling conceptions, the offspring of ignorance and of darkness … the draff and offal of a bygone age … well suited … to those old and barbarous times, when men being unable to refine their ideas, were … unable to purify their creed. Now … everything is against them … The signs of the times are all around, and they who list may read. […]

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Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England , pp. 103 - 140
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1985

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