{ "id": "CH02.P014", "oid": 32, "kind": "paragraph", "label": null, "work": "orthodoxy", "edition": "pg16769-r1", "work_metadata": { "title": "Orthodoxy", "authors": [ "G. K. Chesterton" ], "description": "G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy (1908), his account of how he came to Christian belief: the full text with annotations, cited sources and commentary.", "original_publication_year": 1908, "alternate_titles": [], "subjects": [ "Christian apologetics", "Christianity", "Philosophy of religion", "Paradox", "G. K. Chesterton", "English literature, 20th century" ], "metadata_version": 2, "metadata_updated_at": "2026-11-07T20:29:57Z" }, "parent": "CH02", "ancestors": [ "CH02" ], "prev": "CH02.P013", "next": "CH02.P015", "url": "/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH02.P014", "text": "For we must remember that the materialist philosophy (whether true or not) is certainly much more limiting than any religion. In one sense, of course, all intelligent ideas are narrow. They cannot be broader than themselves. A Christian is only restricted in the same sense that an atheist is restricted. He cannot think Christianity false and continue to be a Christian; and the atheist cannot think atheism false and continue to be an atheist. But as it happens, there is a very special sense in which materialism has more restrictions than spiritualism. Mr. McCabe thinks me a slave because I am not allowed to believe in determinism. I think Mr. McCabe a slave because he is not allowed to believe in fairies. But if we examine the two vetoes we shall see that his is really much more of a pure veto than mine. The Christian is quite free to believe that there is a considerable amount of settled order and inevitable development in the universe. But the materialist is not allowed to admit into his spotless machine the slightest speck of spiritualism or miracle. Poor Mr. McCabe is not allowed to retain even the tiniest imp, though it might be hiding in a pimpernel. The Christian admits that the universe is manifold and even miscellaneous, just as a sane man knows that he is complex. The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, a touch of the citizen. Nay, the really sane man knows that he has a touch of the madman. But the materialist's world is quite simple and solid, just as the madman is quite sure he is sane. The materialist is sure that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation, just as the interesting person before mentioned is quite sure that he is simply and solely a chicken. Materialists and madmen never have doubts.", "length_cp": 1811, "sha256": "a2e292f82eed34e3fbd6190448fa76081b7ea57ba32b8acf451db4219e9f3c69", "children": [], "annotations": [ { "id": "a_4mrfsc65", "oid": 164928, "revision": 1, "revision_oid": 164929, "created_at": "2026-11-07T16:10:56Z", "updated_at": "2026-11-07T16:10:56Z", "title": "Necessary causes without an entirely necessary universe", "work": "orthodoxy", "edition": "pg16769-r1", "anchors": [ { "unit": "CH02.P014", "oid": 32, "role": null, "edition": "pg16769-r1", "paragraph": "CH02.P014", "exact": "a considerable amount of settled order and inevitable development in the universe", "start": 868, "end": 949, "prefix": "e free to believe that there is ", "suffix": ". But the materialist is not all", "url": "/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH02.P014#char=868,949" } ], "metadata": { "run": "chapter-02-restart-2026-11-07", "paragraph_investigator": "P014", "task": [ { "approach": "Philosophical contextualization: then and since", "question": "Does allowing more kinds of beings establish greater intellectual freedom, and how does McCabe's own later treatment of supernatural evidence qualify the portrait of a pure veto?" }, { "approach": "Theological contextualization", "question": "What theological distinction permits Christianity to acknowledge necessity without embracing universal determinism?" } ], "model": "gpt-6.1-sol" }, "url": "/a/a_4mrfsc65" }, { "id": "a_6mhnkknv", "oid": 164926, "revision": 1, "revision_oid": 164927, "created_at": "2026-11-07T16:10:56Z", "updated_at": "2026-11-07T16:10:56Z", "title": "Permission to believe and reasons for disbelief", "work": "orthodoxy", "edition": "pg16769-r1", "anchors": [ { "unit": "CH02.P014", "oid": 32, "role": null, "edition": "pg16769-r1", "paragraph": "CH02.P014", "exact": "his is really much more of a pure veto than mine", "start": 765, "end": 813, "prefix": "he two vetoes we shall see that ", "suffix": ". The Christian is quite free to", "url": "/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH02.P014#char=765,813" } ], "metadata": { "run": "chapter-02-restart-2026-11-07", "paragraph_investigator": "P014", "task": [ { "approach": "Philosophical contextualization: then and since", "question": "Does allowing more kinds of beings establish greater intellectual freedom, and how does McCabe's own later treatment of supernatural evidence qualify the portrait of a pure veto?" }, { "approach": "Theological contextualization", "question": "What theological distinction permits Christianity to acknowledge necessity without embracing universal determinism?" } ], "model": "gpt-6.1-sol" }, "url": "/a/a_6mhnkknv" } ], "annotations_next_cursor": null, "cited_by": [ { "id": "a_avnsjprz", "oid": 165694, "revision": 1, "revision_oid": 165695, "created_at": "2026-11-07T19:04:35Z", "updated_at": "2026-11-07T19:04:35Z", "title": "What a complete explanation can leave out", "work": "orthodoxy", "edition": "pg16769-r1", "anchors": [ { "unit": "CH02", "oid": 5, "role": null, "edition": "pg16769-r1", "url": "/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH02" } ], "metadata": { "run": "argument-articles-restart-2026-11-07", "pass": "argument", "task": "Developing argument of chapter II, The Maniac", "object": "CH02", "model": "gpt-6.1-sol" }, "url": "/a/a_avnsjprz" } ], "cited_by_next_cursor": null }