Why I Am An Agnostic (1929)
Context: To say that God made the universe gives us no explanation of the beginnings of things. If we are told that God made the universe, the question immediately arises: Who made God? Did he always exist, or was there some power back of that? Did he create matter out of nothing, or is his existence coextensive with matter? The problem is still there. What is the origin of it all? If, on the other hand, one says that the universe was not made by God, that it always existed, he has the same difficulty to confront. To say that the universe was here last year, or millions of years ago, does not explain its origin. This is still a mystery. As to the question of the origin of things, man can only wonder and doubt and guess.
“A million years ago there had been no river here and in a million years to come there might be no river — but in a million years from now there would be, if not Man, at least a caring thing. And that was the secret of the universe, Enoch told himself — a thing that went on caring.”
Source: Way Station (1963), Ch. 35
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Clifford D. Simak 137
American writer, journalist 1904–1988Related quotes
“And that was a million years ago
In a time that no man knows”
Evolution (1895; 1909)
Context: And that was a million years ago
In a time that no man knows;
Yet here tonight in the mellow light
We sit at Delmonico's.
Your eyes are deep as the Devon springs,
Your hair is dark as jet,
Your years are few, your life is new,
Your soul untried, and yet
Televised speech (27 October 1964), cited in Reagan's Reign of Error (1983) by Mark Green
1960s
Source: What On Earth Is About To Happen… For Heaven’s Sake? (2013), p. 39
Dissertation for doctor of philosophy in christian education (May 25, 1991)
Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble)