"Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy" : Rule I
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)
“It may, perhaps, be true, though we cannot distinctly see it to be so, that as all finite things require a cause, infinites admit of none.”
Vol. I : Part I : The Being and Attributes of God, § 1 : Of the existence of God, and those attributes which art deduced from his being considered as uncaused himself, and the cause of every thing else (1772)
Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion (1772–1774)
Context: It may, perhaps, be true, though we cannot distinctly see it to be so, that as all finite things require a cause, infinites admit of none. It is evident, that nothing can begin to be without a cause; but it by no means follows from thence, that that must have had a cause which had no beginning. But whatever there may be in this conjecture, we are constrained, in pursuing the train of causes and effects, to stop at last at something uncaused.
That any being should be self created is evidently absurd, because that would suppose that he had a being before he had, or that he existed, and did not exist at the same time. For want of clearer knowledge of this subject, we are obliged to content ourselves with terms that convey only negative ideas, and to say that God is a being untreated or uncaused; and this is all that we mean when we sometimes say that he is self existent.
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Do you have more details about the quote "It may, perhaps, be true, though we cannot distinctly see it to be so, that as all finite things require a cause, infin…" by Joseph Priestley?
Joseph Priestley 47
English theologian, chemist, educator, and political theori… 1733–1804Related quotes
“It is the infinite alone that cannot be attained, for if it could it would become finite.”
Leonardo Da Vinci
(1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
Thoughts on Art and Life, by Leonardo da Vinci http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29904, (1906)
“It is hard to be finite upon an infinite subject, and all subjects are infinite.”
Herman Melville
(1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet
Hawthorne and His Mosses (1850)
Simon Sinek
(1973) British/American author and motivational speaker
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simon-sinek_life-is-infinite-activity-6688986812406341632-6v5S
Thomas Paine
(1737–1809) English and American political activist
1790s, Discourse to the Theophilanthropists (1798)
Context: As to that which is called nature, it is no other than the laws by which motion and action of every kind, with respect to unintelligible matter, is regulated. And when we speak of looking through nature up to nature's God, we speak philosophically the same rational language as when we speak of looking through human laws up to the power that ordained them.
God is the power of first cause, nature is the law, and matter is the subject acted upon.
But infidelity by ascribing every phenomenon to properties of matter, conceives a system for which it cannot account, and yet it pretends to demonstration. It reasons from what it sees on the surface of the earth, but it does not carry itself on the solar system existing by motion. It sees upon the surface a perpetual decomposition and recomposition of matter. It sees that an oak produces an acorn, an acorn an oak, a bird an egg, an egg a bird, and so on. In things of this kind it sees something which it calls a natural cause, but none of the causes it sees is the cause of that motion which preserves the solar system.
Halldór Laxness
(1902–1998) Icelandic author
Sjálfstætt fólk (Independent People) (1935), Book Two, Part I: Hard Times
“God is the infinite ALL. Man is only a finite manifestation of Him.”
Leo Tolstoy
(1828–1910) Russian writer
Entry in Tolstoy's Diary http://www.linguadex.com/tolstoy/chapter1.htm (1 November 1910)
Context: God is the infinite ALL. Man is only a finite manifestation of Him.
Or better yet:
God is that infinite All of which man knows himself to be a finite part.
God alone exists truly. Man manifests Him in time, space and matter. The more God's manifestation in man (life) unites with the manifestations (lives) of other beings, the more man exists. This union with the lives of other beings is accomplished through love.
God is not love, but the more there is of love, the more man manifests God, and the more he truly exists...
We acknowledge God only when we are conscious of His manifestation in us. All conclusions and guidelines based on this consciousness should fully satisfy both our desire to know God as such as well as our desire to live a life based on this recognition.
George Holmes Howison
(1834–1916) American philosopher
Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), Appendix E: Reply to Criticisms of Mr. J.M.E. McTaggert, p.421-2