No longer able to take the idea of divine providence seriously, Darwin turned his gaze toward nature itself as a source of meaning.
In 1930, Strauss published his first book, Spinoza's Critique of Religion, dedicated to Rosenzweig's memory, in which he argued that nineteenth and twentieth-century readers of Spinoza could see him as a "God intoxicated man" only because they had ceased to take the possibility of divine revelation seriously.
The precise mechanisms by which such structures carry out their roles seemed inexplicable, and no alternative but divine creation could be seriously proposed to account for their origin (Paley 1802).
Although personally disinclined to accept divine honours, he did not seriously oppose the current trend and had a temple erected to himself in Camulodunum.
While in the case of natural phenomena suspension of judgment maintains an unfailing spirit of research, in the case of the divine realm, where human understanding is seriously limited, suspension of judgment, Plutarch suggests, is due also as a form of piety towards the divine (De sera 549E; Opsomer 1998, 178 179).
If not — if his dictates are divine whims — why should we take them seriously?
The concept of divine kingship was known but rarely taken seriously, the claim to the status of the caste of royalty becoming more important.
His refutation was widely accepted as decisive, and in any event the theory of the divine right of kings ceased to be taken seriously in England after 1688.
"He talks about the 'web of life' and sums up the encyclical as stating everything in nature is an expression of the divine and therefore we have to take it seriously," Brown said.
Remember the miracles of biology, chemistry, cell replication and divine creative power that got you here, and take seriously the idea that you are here for a reason.
