| Show for the deim deseret news SCIENCE vs RELIGION aimo AITO RELIGION vs SCIENCE BY W B R MAY kay in taking a birdseye birds eye view of the scientific and religious state of the world at large the sed observer is 13 impressed with the antagonism which app ren bently aly exists and peradventure it may profit us to examine a EC little into some of the causes which create such a confusion on the one band hand we see those who stoutly maintain the necessity of divine revelation resist every attempt in this direction hence from a profession of christianity results a practice of paganism on the other we find those who claiming to he be votaries vot aries of the great principles which govern the universe and which bear the seal of liberality most contracted in their views hence they form conclusions from a whole of which they i have but a limited knowledge of a parr part and reject all laws but such as have become cognizant to their understanding der one looks upon science with the greatest mistrust the other upon revelation as pregnant with destruction the scientist says pays that we have no need of revelation all nature is governed by immutable law laws and that a as pain ensues from burning our fingers ringers so have no in need eed of further teaching than that of experience peri ence and that we must look to other sources than divine will for our rules of conduct because evils are consequent upon a continuance of wrong actions must we disregard divine admonition or rather would not reason tell us to heed the teachings of him in whom dwells a fullness of knowledge and intelligence and does not sen ben tience of our helplessness and limited capacity naturally cause us to do so because I 1 from the necessary rel rei relation atlon of cause and effect all moral rules are ultimately derived must we obey only such laws as we know of and ignore all others we know not of and must injunctions founded on unknown laws be rejected because of such ignorance because the government derives it powers from the very existence of the governed must that government be repudiated because of the existence of law is there no need of a lawgiver because truth is existent coexistent co with is it necessary in order to believe in the one to deny the other The these seare are some bome of the questions which scientific writers unwittingly force upon our consideration and when they have been answered in accordance with truth perhaps they will not be eo so hasty in arriving at conclusions religion Ee ligion has been at all times and ia ls pagay magay lt today to dax day a vi ra moala 11 p potent agent for P W n of the many excesses perpetrated under that name many well disposed persons have been led to seek for fon ruiea rulea of conduct in other directions and the tendencies of mankind are mainly attributable to this cause yet it is patent that in our day there is another of great weight which is operating in the same direction and that to the persistent exclusion of the law of causation from the faith of the believer is due a g great reat rent deal of this unbelief at d divers 1 vers periods men 9 actuated with a love of truth and no doubt according to the divine will have discovered some of the great natural laws by which the creations of god are governed and no sooner have they been communicated than tha n the believer in divinity has cried heresy and he be has condemned such truths as well weli as those who advanced them because they seemed to conflict with the narrow con cou contracted t con eon conceptions which he had of the divine word but time ehst great agent in ln preserving equilibrium finely am amalgamates tre a the conflicting elements and the believer points to these same truths as evidences of his faith however such is the dread of ot innovation that mankind will resist to the last any attempt no maetter how benevolent to lift it out of the old rut and notwithstanding the lessons which we have llave been taught in this respect the same game feelings I 1 prevail today to day the momentum of thought naturally tends to a circle 1 any deflective force has this impetus to meet the laws which govern matter in a certain state will govern it whenever that state is duplicated hence geas reas as it was in the beginning so it is now and ever shall be now on the other hand because scientific men follow out the details of cause and effect accumulate observations ions collect facts and by the reasoning interpret sono so no ue great uni versal principle and dare to apply it to the masses with which we are s surrounded 11 the believer in revelation is startled a cry of holy horror borror emanates from hh lips and all his combative powers are called into action to oppose that which he considers subversive of his faith inthe if the state of popularity permits the rack is used to extort denials of such heresy if it not the epithets are most lavishly hurled at the heads of or such poor unfortunates who spend their theli jives lives lives ilves in the search and elimination or of truth sometimes it is most amusing to observe the knowing look of the self considered faithful the feeling of pity which he silently expresses for the must be heretic who in his estimation is doomed to eternal damnation and to hear the ejaculations of or absurd insane forgetting that perhaps vi a retrospective spec tive examination of E self seif e I 1 f would more aptly illustrate the application of such exclamations here the re ligi onist inist falls into the same error as the th e scientist viz too much self sufficiency ency eney unheeding the fact that of one flesh god created all ali men that he is no respecter of persons and that he feels the same solicitude for the one as he does doea for the other let ret us then profit by the lesson of humility which these things teach us and let us mould our conceptions in harmony with truth and not model truth to our imperfect in er knowledge i and limited understanding for herein her eln ein lies one of the greatest greate sf obstacles to human progress and when it is overcome the great reign of peace may be said paid to have fairly dawned upon the world |
