The Way Out Of Agnosticism Or The Philosophy Of Free Religion

Author : Francis Ellingwood Abbot
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330246306
Total Pages : 99 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (463 download)

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Download or read book The Way Out of Agnosticism written by Francis Ellingwood Abbot and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-27 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Way Out of Agnosticism: Or the Philosophy of Free Religion The following papers (with the exception of the Introduction) are based on notes of forty-one lectures delivered in 1888, in the "Advanced Course, Philosophy 13," Harvard University. Originally published during the year 1889 as a series of contributions to a monthly periodical in Boston, they are now addressed, not to those who are impatient of serious thought or incapable of following a close and continuous argument, but to those (and their name is legion) who, though able and willing to think, have been distressed or dismayed by the seeming inability of theistic writers in this age to meet and defeat agnosticism on its own professed ground, - the ground of science and philosophy. By a wholly new line of reasoning, drawn exclusively from those sources, this book aims to show that, in order to refute agnosticism and establish enlightened theism, nothing is now necessary but to philosophize that very scientific method which agnosticism barbarously misunderstands and misuses. Of the success of the perhaps unwise attempt to show this in so small a compass, the educated public must be the judge. But it may be well to quote here these wise and true words of Arnold Toynbee, one of the noblest young men of the century, whose early death was a calamity to England and to the world: - "Had liberal theologians in England combined more often with their undoubted courage and warmth definite philosophic views, religions liberalism would not now be condemned as offering nothing more than a mere sentiment of vague benevolence. Earnest and thoughtful people are willing to encounter the difficulty of mastering some unfamiliar phrases of technical language, when they find they are in possession of a sharply defined intellectual position upon which their religious faith may rest." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.