Editorial July 18, 1908 Issue

"SCIENCE AND RELIGION."

John B. Willis

IN his very interesting address on "Science and Religion," before a recent London gathering, Mr. Arthur Balfour spoke of the relation of physical science to human conditions in terms which will provoke much thought. He is reported as saying that while "he could not conceive of human society permanently deprived of the religious element, he looked to [physical] science, more than to anything else, for the amelioration of the human lot in the future."

When one thinks of the tremendous gain in the command and control of natural resources, of the possessions and capabilities of life which have been secured to the race since the days of Francis Bacon, he may be led to think that the ex-Premier's anticipation is abundantly warranted,—that the hope of humanity does indeed lie in the direction of that investigation, invention, and adjustment which is chronicling ever more marvelous achievements. It is impossible, however, to meditate upon this subject without speedily being brought face to face with the question whether, after all, these modern wonders in the way of the discovery and utilization of so-called natural resources and laws have really hastened or hindered humanity's ethical advance. As one realizes that the supreme end of life is the attainment of character, racial quality, i.e., spiritual dominion, he can but give place to doubt as to the real value, the bettering effects upon thought and life-habit, of many of those things which have been classed as the most significant waymarks of modern science.

To illustrate. Perhaps no product of scientific thought can compare in far-reaching significance with Mr. Darwin's explanation of the origin of species, the evolution of form and function through natural selection, the survival of the fittest. Nevertheless, this "scientific theory" and contention has done more perhaps than anything else to rule the idea of divine immanence and government out of thought, and to beget practical agnosticism and infidelity. It may be averred that this evolutionary philosophy has only disproved and discarded the superstitions and excrescences of religious belief; that it has nothing to say of ultimates; that it has to do not with the metaphysics of things but only with processes and methods. This may all be granted, and yet it cannot be denied that the general trend and effect of the Darwinian philosophy has been away from the recognition of the Christian God, the Christian faith, and the maintenance of the activities of the Christian life.

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