FOOTNOTES:
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[ The “light of revelation,” as well as the “light of the Christian religion,” has not dispelled the darkness of ignorance. The torch of reason is a surer guide.—Pub.]
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[ The human race has from time immemorial been afflicted with so-called revelations, all claiming inspiration, all conflicting, and all being equally “mysterious and obscure.” The wars arising among these sectarians have retarded civilization, and deluged the earth in blood. The revelations of science, founded upon reason and demonstration, have proved the only safe and beneficent guide.—Pub.]
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[ While it is true that the argument of Design, here given, places the subject one step in advance, it is still unsatisfactory, because it fails to explain to us who designed the designer, and the mystery of creation still remains unsolved.
“What think you of an uncaused cause of everything?” is the pertinent question which Bishop Watson, in his Apology for the Bible, asked, and vainly asked, of the celebrated deist, Thomas Paine.—Pub.]