1380. The Folly of Philosophy
The Folly of Philosophy
"Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God; how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out."
Philosophy endeavors to discover the rational explanation of things; it attempts to ferret out the reason for results; it reaches back of existing conditions to first causes, back of present facts to first principles.
Philosophy in its genius is not "creative;" it does not attempt to discover the future, upon the basis of the present; it is not given to prophesying.
The realm of philosophy is the unraveling of the WHY of the things which are. It looks backward. It seeks to solve the riddle of origin. It busies itself with the causes and reasons, the powers and laws that put in operation and that sustain the present order.
If philosophy presents a "law of continuance," thus outlining future events, its law would permit no more than scientific deductions, based on the fact that that which has been, shall be, and that there is no "new thing under the sun."
The Folly of Philosophy begins in its attempt to seek out and to scientifically account for the things of God. Philosophy reaches its climax of error when it repudiates and denies the things it cannot explain.
The spirit of man may know the things of a man–herein alone is the only safe and sane realm for philosophy. But, "who knoweth the things of God, save the Spirit of God which is in Him?" Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned.
Carnal intellectuality cannot grasp God. "Soulish men, having not the Spirit," cannot find out God. "The natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned."
Marconi's system of "wireless" is based not only upon the scientific discovery that sound produces air vibrations; but, also that the transmitting and the receiving instruments must be uniformably "tuned" or "pitched."
A tuning fork when "sounded" sends forth vibrations of air, and other tuning forks not "sounded" will catch the air motion and vibrate if they are of a like key.
The "soulish" or physical man, no matter how great his mind, cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned.
Man is a trinity–body, soul, and spirit. Things material are understood by the senses of the body, things "soulish" by the soul, and things spiritual by the Spirit.
Men of marked mentality, gifted in human scholarship, may be as ignorant as hottentots about things spiritual.
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him: but He hath revealed them unto us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."
"Who hath known the mind of the Lord?"
"Who hath instructed Him?"
"Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord?"
Why then does philosophy presume to know the mind of the Lord? Its unhallowed quest has led it on to holy ground. It imagines that there are no reaches beyond its possible research; no first causes beyond its possible conquest.
If God has circumscribed the realm of philosophy to the things of man, why should philosophy prescribe instructions unto God? Why deny God a seat above human ken? Vain philosophy deigns to assert that what its wisdom cannot fathom, God's wonders cannot fashion; that what its genius cannot explain, God's greatness cannot execute; that what its reason cannot account for, God's right arm cannot achieve!
Why should philosophy dare to instruct the Spirit of the Lord? Is philosophy omniscient, that God must hear its voice? Will philosophy make its wisdom a boundary to the goings forth of God, saying: "Thus far shalt Thou go and no farther"?
Vain philosophy errs! It hath left its proper habitations; wandered beyond its own hunting grounds; and approached the burning bush with sandled feet.
Who by searching can find out God? Can the finite comprehend the Infinite? Can the impotent lock arms with the Omnipotent?
The bane of philosophy is its attempt to know the unknowable, to explain the inexplicable, to comprehend the incomprehensible. Such a quest has ever led to ethereal vagaries and irrational theories.
Humanism is the offspring of philosophy. To assert that the things of God can be rationally and scientifically accounted for, is an effort to lift man up to a level with God. To repudiate all of the things of Deity, for which man cannot rationally and scientifically account, is to bring God down to the level of man. In either case philosophy dares to humanize God, or else to deify man.
Agnosticism is the offspring of philosophy.
Philosophy is builded upon "reasonable explanations." It neither gives credence nor yields homage to unsolved mysteries, although God must ever remain (apart from Divine revelation) an unsolved mystery.
Philosophy thus repudiates God with "I do not know," "I cannot have faith in the unknowable,"–and Agnosticism is born. The parent differs from its offspring only in this: the parent seeks to know but can never by seeking find out God; the offspring is content to confess "I do not know" and "I do not care to bother myself about knowing."
Pantheism is the offspring of Philosophy.
Philosophy, in its quest for "first causes" has, now and then, in the utter despair of tangible results, fallen back on the vain supposition that there is an immaterial, invisible power working behind material manifestations–that back of the cosmos lies an "order" and a system of "forces" that governs matter–this "order" or "force" is God. Thus has philosophy parented Pantheism.
Philosophy is more Atheistic than Christian. It is more Agnostic than Atheistic, and more Pantheistic than Agnostic.
What consummate folly! Suppose some creature of a "lower strata" than man; a creature which had his home in the branches of a tree within the radius of some college campus: suppose this creature had sufficient intelligence to note the fact that month after month, at certain hours, the gong sounded and the campus and the college halls were alive with thronging students rushing here and there.
Then suppose that this meagerly intelligent creature should observe that an endless monotony marked the sounding of the gong–year after year there was the same gong, at the same hours, with the same results.
Then suppose that this self-wise but really ignorant creature should seek the "first cause," the "reasonable explanation" of this strange phenomenon; and although some of his fellow-creatures gave assurance that there were both college president and faculty behind the scenes; yet because he had never seen them, he strongly contended that there were natural laws which sounded the gong and started the surging of the students–then this creature would be, among his clan, a vain philosopher.
What consummate folly! Some highbrow, wise above his fellows, having marked the symmetry and the system of planetary movements, and denying (because he has never seen Him) the fact of a personal God concludes that some self-started and self-sustained laws run the planets–this highbrow, this worldly-wise man, this college "prof" would be a recognized philosopher.
What consummate folly! Does the schedule run the train? Certainly not. Trains run (or, are supposed to run) on a schedule. But back of the schedule stands the chief dispatcher, and the president of the road. Neither do "laws" run the universe. The universe runs according to law (and every planet runs on time) but back of the law is God; a personal, living, omniscient, and omnipotent God. In Him all things consist.
One fact remains true, vain philosophy is a failure. Centuries of human endeavor find the "world of the wise" still groping in the darkness of ignorance. This age of culture and of criticism has no "Eureka" on its tongue. The secrets which belonged to God ages ago are secrets still.
Philosophy's chief asset is the elimination of inspired revelation. In this feat of folly its one hope of light is extinguished. Mary sat at Christ's feet and heard His Word. Philosophy rejects His Word. Peter spoke of the Prophetic Word made sure; philosophy repudiates the Prophetic Word. The Seer John pronounced anathemas on those adding to, or taking from the Word of God. Philosophy dares to do both.
Philosophy demands human investigation of every Divine revelation. It decries inexplicable, but God-breathed verities. It receives as certified truth only scientifically established facts.
Philosophy has no personal God. The God of the Christian, Who is, and is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, is not the God of the philosopher. He knows no personal, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God. He enthrones human reason and deifies human knowledge. His god is himself; or else, his god is the immaterial and pantheistic god–the incomprehensible laws that govern matter.
The philosopher would eliminate God from the skies. Uncounted worlds swing in space upon a humanly reasonable and scientific basis. The heavens do not declare the glory of God, nor does the firmament show forth His handiwork.
Only madness can contend that through countless ages myriads of stars have pursued the route of scientific development–they evolved–they grew–they slowly sprang from some primordial mass–they scientifically begat themselves. Having thus through countless ages reached their present perfection; these heavenly bodies present today no more than a marvelous system of suns, planets, and worlds held together by self-evolved and unerringly accurate laws. The only god who moves mid the whirl and the rush of these planets is the immaterial and all pervading "law," "order," and "first cause," the SCIENTIFIC BASIS that lies behind or within them.
The philosopher would eliminate God from the earth. The earth too evolved! It was not created. It came to be, not by the Word of God, but by the result of some rational "first cause." Its rocks and its rills, its mountains and its meadows, its fields and its forests all followed the laws of scientific development. No fiat of a creative God said, "Let there be light;" no command of Deity placed the firmament between the waters which were above and the waters which were beneath; no Word of the Lord said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit." God neither said, "Let there be light in the firmament of Heaven," nor did He say, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly and let the earth bring forth the living creature."
Everything, according to philosophy, both the earth and the luminaries above it, and the man upon it, merely evolved. Everything followed natural laws–laws requiring untold millenniums to attain to, or to reach present progress.
Man was not created, man evolved. The story of Genesis is a fanciful tale borrowed from the fables of ancient lore.
Darwin merely suggested his hypothesis, by which God is eliminated and God's Word is annihilated, but foolish philosophers and scholastic highbrows, who are men of mind, having not the Spirit, have vainly imagined that a vain "hypothesis" is established truth.
Rational explanations cannot interpret the inexplicable things of God. "The just shall walk by faith." The Christian saith that the world was made by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by the things which do appear. The Christian demands no Darwinian theory to satisfy his soul.
Philosophy halts at the circumference of everything it cannot comprehend. It eliminates faith. "The wise shall walk by sight," is its creed.
The Christian lives in the light of the Prophetic Word and humbly waits the fruition of hope. Things not seen, but prophetically promised, are just as real as things seen and practically present. Faith lends substance to things hoped for. The philosopher halts at the door of Divine revelation. He eliminates faith, he slays hope. He accepts no testimony of the things to come.
What folly is this! Men may exalt human wisdom and seek to intellectually fathom things Divine, but God's wisdom remains still the "hidden wisdom." The philosophic eye hath never seen, its ear hath never heard, neither hath its highest dream ever entertained the things which belong to God.
"God hath destroyed the wisdom of the wise and brought to naught the understanding of the prudent." God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world.
What has philosophy accomplished! It stands helpless to give instruction in the first causes. Even the simpler phenomena of a wonder-working God baffles the researches of men. Philosophers still wear their swaddling clothes; they have not yet reached the profundities of God's a, b, c.
Dr. Haldeman suggests: "Human philosophy has never explained the riddle of force."
"Human philosophy has never discovered the origin of motion."
"Human philosophy has never defined life." What can it tell of its origin? What does it know of the relation of mind to matter? Where are its philippics on death?
"Human philosophy has never demonstrated the science that marks the perfect order, the matchless system and the rhythmic symmetry of the works of God." Planetary systems and the minutae of the detailed works of God all speed their way or mark their path by a rhythm of order and a co-operative progress that has for six thousand years baffled the why of philosophers.
"Human philosophy has never classified consciousness." How can one know that he is himself and not another? Why and how do the wonderful manifestations of joy and of sorrow, of pain and of peace fill the being? Why? How? Can the philosopher tell?
"Human philosophy cannot with all their thinking define their thought." What is thought? Will some wise one rise and tell?
"Human philosophy has never explained the will." In fact, what has philosophy done? Beware, oh, Christian, lest you be beguiled by vain philosophy–lest you be led captive by vain reasoning–lest you be made a prey of scientific subtleties. Let philosophers, let the wise men be ashamed. Let them be dismayed. "They have rejected the Word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them?"
Through countless labyrinths of mystic suppositions, through innumerable contradictions of scientific deductions, they have made shipwreck concerning the faith. A "thus saith investigation" (not inspiration, not revelation) may be final to the philosopher, but, let a "thus saith the Lord" remain final to a child of God. The Word of God must ever surpass man's investigation simply because it is the Word of God. With humble, worshipful mien, let us cry, "O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God." "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it." "How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them?"
Let vain philosophers confess their ignorance before the wisdom of God. Let them worship God in whose very hand their breath is, and in whose hand are all their ways.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR