the whole creed is
'natural theology,' and 'natural theology' is simply a branch of
science, amenable to the ordinary scientific tests. It is intended to
prove the existence of an agent essential to the working of the
machinery, as from the movements of a planet we infer the existence of
a disturbing planet. The argument from design, in this acceptation, is
briefly mentioned by 'Philip Beauchamp.' It is, he argues, 'completely
extra-experimental'; for experience only reveals design in living
beings: it supposes a pre-existing chaos which can never be shown to
have existed, and the 'omnipotent will' introduced to explain the
facts is really no explanation at all, but a collection of meaningless
words.[629] The argument is briefly dismissed as concerning the truth,
not the utility, of religion, but one point is sufficiently indicated.
The argument from 'design' is always plausible, because it applies
reasoning undeniably valid when it is applied within its proper
sphere. The inference from a watch to a watchmaker is clearly
conclusive. We know sufficiently what is meant by the watchmaker and
by 'making.' We therefore reason to a _vera causa_--an agent already
known. When the inference is to the action of an inconceivable Being
performing an inconceivable operation upon inconceivable materials, it
really becomes illusory, or amounts to the simple assertion that the
phenomenon is inexplicable. Therefore, again, it is essentially
opposed to science though claiming to be scientific. The action of
the creator is supposed to begin where the possibility of knowledge
ends. It is just the inexplicable element which suggests the creative
agency. Conversely, the satisfactory explanation of any phenomenon
takes it out of the theological sphere. As soon as the process becomes
'natural' it ceases to demand the supernatural artificer. 'Making,'
therefore, is contradistinguished from 'growing.' If we see how the
eye has come into existence, we have no longer any reason to assume
that it was put together mechanically. In other words, 'teleology' of
this variety is dispelled by theories of evolution. The hypothesis of
interference becomes needless when we see how things came to be by
working out perfectly natural processes. As science, therefore,
expands, theology recedes. This was to become more evident at a later
period. For the present, the teleological argument in the Paley form,
triumphantly set forth in Bridgewater Treatises and the l