God Arises
Argument for the Life Hereafter
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inevitable reality have been forced by the lessons of
history to agree that if we reject the concept of the
life hereafter, there remains no other deterrent
strong enough to control man and oblige him to
observe the rules of justice and fair play. Immanuel
Kant, the noted German philosopher, rejected the
belief in God’s existence on grounds of insufficient
proof: “Since religion must be based not on the logic
of theoretical reason but on the practical reason of
the moral sense, it follows that any Bible or
revelation must be judged by its value for morality
and cannot itself be the judge of a moral code.”
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Voltaire likewise did not believe in any
metaphysical reality, but in his view also:
“The concept of God and the life hereafter are
very important in that they serve as postulates
of the moral feeling. To him by means of them
alone an atmosphere of good morals may be
created. In the absence of such beliefs we have
no incentive for good behaviour, making the
maintenance of a social order well-nigh
impossible.”
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