God the Known and God the Unknown
()
About this ebook
Samuel Butler
Samuel Butler (1835–1902) was an English author whose turbulent upbringing would inspire one of his greatest works, The Way of All Flesh. Butler grew up in a volatile home with an overbearing father who was both mentally and physically abusive. He was eventually sent to boarding school and then St. John's College where he studied Classics. As a young adult, he lived in a parish and aspired to become a clergyman but had a sudden crisis of faith. He decided to travel the world and create new experiences fueling his literary career.
Read more from Samuel Butler
The Way Of All Flesh: "Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime." Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Note-Books of Samuel Butler Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Way of All Flesh (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time - #74] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLuck, or Cunning, as the Main Means of Organic Modification Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod the Known and God the Unknown: "Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHudibras, in Three Parts, Written in the Time of the Late Wars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErewhon & Erewhon Revisited Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Iliad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond All Religion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Atlas of Ancient and Classical Geography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Curse On All Their Houses, How Religious Scripture and Practices Support Intolerance, Violence and Even War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErewhon Or Over the Range By Samuel Butler Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErewhon Revisited (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Erewhon Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Humbidbras: "Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErewhon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErewhon Revisited Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Erewhon Revisited: Twenty Years Later Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Life and Habbit: "In law, nothing is certain but the expense" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEx Voto: "All truth is not to be told at all times" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Future of Darkness: 30+ Dystopias in One Edition Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Erewhon: "Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErewhon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Pox* On All Their Houses, How Religious SCRIPTURE and Practices Support Intolerance, Violence, and Even War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to God the Known and God the Unknown
Related ebooks
God the Known and God the Unknown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod the Known and God the Unknown (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod the Known and God the Unknown: "Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod and the World: A Survey of Thought Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow Did We Get To Be So Different?: The Secrets of Life: From Big Bang to Trump Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Search of Time: Understanding the nature and experience of time for a better life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMore Hubs That Provoke Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWear and Tear; Or, Hints for the Overworked Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Textbook of Theosophy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMan Visible and Invisible Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Davey Dialogues - An Exploration of the Scientific Foundations of Human Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Textbook of Theosophy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Outline of Theosophy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond the Subjectivity Trap Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssays Towards a Theory of Knowledge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe High Watch, a View of God's Unfolding Divine Plan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClairvoyance (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Eternal Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Consciousness of the Atom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Meaning of Good—A Dialogue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings10 Major Events No One Saw Coming Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClairvoyance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeizure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReality Unveiled: The Reality Unveiled Collection, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssays of a Biologist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHuman Intercourse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTaking Down The Curtain: The Truth About Faith, Fact, and the Slippery Wizards of Voodoo Metaphysics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaking Sense of Brief Lives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Unseen World and Other Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Also Rises: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden (Original Classic Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scarlet Letter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad (The Samuel Butler Prose Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for God the Known and God the Unknown
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
God the Known and God the Unknown - Samuel Butler
Samuel Butler
God the Known and God the Unknown
EAN 8596547138129
DigiCat, 2022
Contact: DigiCat@okpublishing.info
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER II. COMMON GROUND
CHAPTER III. PANTHEISM.
CHAPTER IV. PANTHEISM.
CHAPTER V. ORTHODOX THEISM
CHAPTER VI. THE TREE OF LIFE
CHAPTER VII. THE LIKENESS OF GOD
CHAPTER VIII. THE LIFE EVERLASTING
CHAPTER IX. GOD THE UNKNOWN
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
Table of Contents
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 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 [sic] 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 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 [sic] this management with some closeness before they venture to satirise [sic] 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. We do so, therefore, with greater security when we can persuade both ourselves and others that a matter is already pigeon-holed than if we feel that we must use our own judgment for the collection, interpretation, and arrangement of the papers which deal with it. Moreover, our action is thus made to appear as if it received collective sanction; and by so appearing it receives it. Almost any settlement, again, is felt to be better than none, and the more nearly a matter comes home to everyone, the more important is it that it should be treated as a sleeping dog, and be let to lie, for if one person begins to open his mouth, fatal developments may arise in the Babel that will follow.
It is not difficult, indeed, to show that, instead of having reason to complain of the desire for the postponement of important questions, as though the world were composed mainly of knaves or fools, such fixity as animal and vegetable forms possess is due to this very instinct. For if there had been no reluctance, if there were no friction and vis inertae to be encountered even after a theoretical equilibrium had been upset, we should have had no fixed organs nor settled proclivities, but should have been daily and hourly undergoing Protean transformations, and have still been throwing out pseudopodia like the amoeba. True, we might have come to like this fashion of living as well as our more steady-going system if we had taken to it many millions of ages ago when we were yet young; but we have contracted other habits which have become so confirmed that we cannot break with them. We therefore now hate that which we should perhaps have loved if we had practised [sic] it. This, however, does not affect the argument, for our concern is with our likes and dislikes, not with the manner in which those likes and dislikes have come about. The discovery that organism is capable of modification at all has occasioned so much astonishment that it has taken the most enlightened part of the world more than a hundred years to leave off expressing its contempt for such a crude, shallow, and preposterous conception. Perhaps in another hundred years we shall learn to admire the good sense, endurance, and thorough Englishness of organism in having been so averse to change, even more than its