That its methods can discover no trace of either of them, of itself proves nothing, unless we first lay down as a dogma that its methods of discovery are the only methods.

If we are prepared to abide by this, there is little more to be said.

The rest, it is becoming daily plainer, is a very simple process; and what we have to urge against religion will thenceforth amount to this.

There is no supernatural, because everything is natural; there is no spirit, because everything is matter; or there is no air, because everything is earth; there is no fire, because everything is water; a rose has no smell because our eyes cannot detect any.
This, in its simplest form, is the so-called argument of modern materialism.

Argument, however, it is quite plain it is not.