Article September 19, 1903 Issue

"Science and Religion."

W. D. McCrackan

New York Commercial Advertiser

A reprint from the London Times in one of your late issues, entitled, "Science and Religion," contains some exceedingly surprising statements with reference to these two terms. We are told by the writer, E. Ray Lankester, that, in his opinion, "there is no relation, in the sense of a connection or influence, between science and religion." He also gives it as his opinion "that religion has not, in its essential qualities, anything to hope for or to fear from science."

Reading further in his communication, one recognizes that his concept of science is of something purely materialistic and physical. He speaks of the order of nature as "a network of mechanism," but implies that science can have no connection with the beyond-physics or metaphysics.

Christian Science, by its very name, protests against such an assumption. Science is classified knowledge, and deals, primarily, with causation. Since God is the First Cause, Creator, and Principle of the universe, including man, it is evident that science must ultimately deal with God, hence with the ultra-physical; i.e., with Spirit or Mind. In its last analysis, therefore, science must concern itself with spiritual and mental phenomena, and must recognize the "network of mechanism," of which Mr. writes, as effect, not cause, hence of secondary, and not of primary, importance.

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