This vicious system I
adopted, and it hastened my fall into unbelief as a matter of course.
Not one of all the most important things on earth admits of proof in
this formal way. You cannot prove your own existence in this way. You
cannot prove the existence of the universe. You cannot prove the
existence of God. You cannot prove that there are such things as vice
and virtue, good and evil. You cannot prove that men ought to marry,
rear families, form governments, live in society, tell the truth, be
honest, restrain their appetites and passions, or abstain from treachery
and murder. All reasonings in favor of religion, virtue, society,
philosophy, must rest on assumptions,--must take a number of things for
granted,--must take for granted the truth and goodness of those
instincts, sentiments, and natural affections which constrain us to be
religious, social, and moral, independent of argument. All reasoning, to
be of any use, must begin, not with doubt, but belief. The reasoning
that begins with doubting every thing, and accepting nothing till it is
proved by formal argument, will end in doubt of every thing that ought
to be believed. It will end, not only in Atheism, but in boundless
immorality, and in utter wretchedness and ruin.
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