Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/97

 acknowledges that there must be a creating agency of some kind. It is optional whether it be called a First Cause, a Power or Aptitude, Efficiency, or the Creator, for into any name each may put his idea of the creating agency. With this understanding, there can be no objection to the axiom that creation necessitates a Creator.

Being agreed as far as this, the next step is to ascertain what the First Cause, or the Creator, is. Is the Creator a law, a quality, an unembodied force, a substance, the first principles in nature, a universal intelligence or goodness, a supernatural force, a person, or what? This question can be answered by logic that is irrefutable. It is hoped that the reader may be led to an answer that is clear, definite, and certain. In giving it, only the familiar and universally accepted principles of philosophical reasoning will be used. Yet let it be borne in mind that the reasoning is not based upon any hypothesis. It commences with a universally perceived and accepted axiom, and proceeds with mathematical certainty.

First, is law the Creator, or First Cause? Law itself is but a mode of action, and implies something back of it that acts. It can not be said that laws create, but rather that creation is subject to