regarded as about equally suspicious. And similarly with regard to their
standing _à posteriori_; for as both theories require to embody at least
one infinite term, they must each alike be pronounced absolutely
inconceivable. But, finally, if the question were put to me which of the
two theories I regarded as the more rational, I observed that this is a
question which no one man can answer for another. For as the test of
absolute inconceivability is equally destructive of both theories, if a
man wishes to choose between them, his choice can only be determined by
what I have designated relative inconceivability--i.e. in accordance
with the verdict given by his individual sense of probability as
determined by his previous habit of thought. And forasmuch as the test
of relative inconceivability may be held in this matter legitimately to
vary with the character of the mind which applies it, the strictly
rational probability of the question to which it is applied varies in
like manner. Or otherwise presented, the only alternative for any man in
this matter is either to discipline himself into an attitude of pure
scepticism, and thus to refuse in thought to entertain either a
probability or an improbability concerning the existence of a God; or
else to incline in thought towards an affirmation or a negation of God,
according as his previous habits of thought have rendered such an
inclination more facile in the one direction than in the other. And
although, under such circumstances, I should consider that man the more
rational who carefully suspended his judgement, I conclude that if this
course is departed from, neither the metaphysical teleologist nor the
scientific atheist has any perceptible advantage over the other in
respect of rationality. For as the formal conditions of a metaphysical
teleology are undoubtedly present on the one hand, and the formal
conditions of a speculative atheism are as undoubtedly present on the
other, there is thus in both cases a logical vacuum supplied wherein the
pendulum of thought is free to swing in whichever direction it may be