Reader. I will soon come to the fact of creation, if you wish, and compel you to swallow back your nasty epithet. But the fact I alluded to was that the phenomena of consciousness and of volition are unaccountable, if there is nothing besides material forces. This you cannot deny; for you say you “cannot but acknowledge that in the relation of brain and soul, phenomena occur which cannot be explained from the simple physical relation of force and matter” (p. lxiv.) As long, therefore, as you admit nothing but matter and material force, there are facts which, by your own confession, cannot be explained. Thus, you see, not only have you failed to substantiate your fundamental assertion, no force without matter, but you are constrained, on your own showing, to admit forces that transcend matter.
III. Creation.
Reader. You say, doctor, that creation is an exploded fact. May I ask why?
Büchner. “Those who talk of a creative power, which is said to have produced the world out of itself, or out of nothing, are ignorant of the first and most simple principle, founded upon experience and the contemplation of nature. How could a power have existed not manifested in material substance, but governing it arbitrarily according to individual views? Neither could separately-existing forces be transferred to chaotic matter, and produce the world in this manner; for we have seen that a separate existence of either is an impossibility” (p. 5).
Reader. I beg to remind you that we have not seen the impossibility of force without matter. All your efforts to show it have been vain. It is childish, therefore, on your part, to pretend that those who talk of a creative power “are ignorant of a first principle founded upon experience and the contemplation of nature.” The contemplation of nature is, on the contrary, the ladder by which rational creatures ascend to the knowledge of the Creator. You ask: How could a power have existed not manifested in material substance? I answer by another question: How could the world have existed, if no such power exists? This is the real question at issue. And pray, doctor, do not speak of separately-existing forces transferred to chaotic matter. This is not the way we account for the [pg 445] production of the world. We do not admit of chaotic matter before creation. And again, do not suppose that we can ever dream of a Creator producing the world out of himself. We are not pantheists; and we know that the world has been produced out of nothing. This is the true notion of creation according to both theology and philosophy.
Büchner. Very well. But “the world could not have originated out of nothing. A nothing is not merely a logical, but also an empirical non-entity. The world, or matter with its properties, which we term forces, must have existed from eternity, and must last for ever—in one word, the world cannot have been created” (p. 5).
Reader. These are bold assertions indeed. How can you make them good?
Büchner. “The notion ‘eternal’ is certainly one which, with our limited faculties, is difficult of conception. The facts, nevertheless, leave no doubt as to the eternity of the world” (p. 5).
Reader. What facts, if you please?