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Tue 27 Aug, 2013 12:58 am
Context:
"But with regard to the material world, we can at least go so far as this-- we can perceive that events are brought about not by insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in each particular case, but by the establishment of general laws."
--Whewell: "Bridgewater Treatise".
"The only distinct meaning of the word 'natural' is STATED, FIXED or SETTLED; since what is natural as much requires and presupposes an intelligent agent to render it so, i.e., to effect it continually or at stated times, as what is supernatural or miraculous does to effect it for once."
Butler: "Analogy of Revealed Religion"
@oristarA,
oristarA wrote:. . . as much . . . as . . .
This is the construction--as much as--which has been elaborated upon. The "as much as" construstion does not always mean also, but it does in this case.
@Setanta,
Thanks.
Does "render it so" mean "carry it out in this way"?
@oristarA,
No, it means to describe it in that manner.
@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:
No, it means to describe it in that manner.
But it says "to effect it continually," which sounds like "to make the universe come into being."
@oristarA,
Ah yes, i see what you mean. I retract my previous remark.
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