Gibbs, J. T.

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SCIENCE AND RELIGIONBY J. T. GIBBS, D. D.''T^HE Scientist seeks to know all kinds of things. The ChristianJ- has the highest assurance that searching will not reveal thedeep things of God. The conflict is due to confusion of thoughtand lack of faith. The first is treason to science, and the secondthe worst possible otTence to religion.Science is the collection and classification of appearances. Ituses the telescope to extend, its sight thru the inconceivable immen-sities of the universe, and the microscope to search out the smallerdetails of creation. It uses millions of miles as a yardstick andthousandths of an inch as a foot rule. It weighs the lightnings. Itdevises cunning instruments for its searching and reveals wondersthat stagger the imagination. In all this it seeks nothing that cannotbe made apparent to the senses.But the world is so full of things that mere observation provesinadequate to the task of searching out their relations. So thereal scientist must be a man of constructive imagination. A hvm-dred years ago the astronomers pictured a solar system of eightworlds, but seven were all that had ever appeared to the humaneye. The exact position of the other world was calculated and thegreat telescopes directed to that spot. The new world was there.So science figures what ought to be, and then finds it.Some of its theories seem incapable of absolute proof, but thatis far from calling them false. Truth is truth, whether man everfinds it or not. An illustration of this is the famous theory of evo-lution. It is hardly conceivable that it can ever be demonstratedthat man actually evolved from lower orders of creation, but mostscientists would appear to think that he did. Shall we call thattheory a wicked dream? It has resulted in a wonderful stimulationSCIENCE AND RELIGION 49of scientific research and many real discoveries of important lawsof life. By its use such wizards as Luther Burbank have addedimmeasurably to the material wealth of mankind. The theory isprized because it works.But here we come to one of the main conflicts between scienceand religion. If man has developed from monkeys to say nothingof the development of monkeys from snakes and of snakes fromlittle drops of living jelly, what becomes of the fall of man? Andif there was no fall, how could there be a redemption? The con-flict is there, and it is serious.But to get to that conflict a number of assumptions are neces-sary. One of those assumptions is that science has discovered anabsolute fact of creation. Now modern science does not evenclaim to make such discoveries. Its business is to see all that canbe seen and to reason out the relations between the different dis-coveries. It reaches evolution not as a fact, but as the best knownsystem of reasoning to account for a multiude of facts. It roughlyarranges all life, past and present, in one ascending scale. It pointsout the fact that Albermarle pippins may be developed from crabapples. Like Pharaoh's magicians in the presence of Aaron, it du-plicates a few of God's miracles, but candor drives it back to SirIsaac Newton's confession. He called himself a child gatheringshells on the shore while the unexplored ocean of knowledgestretched before him. It endorses St. Paul's declaration that weknow only in part. Its more reverent devotees exclaim with thefounder of chemistry, "O God, I think Thy thoughts after Thee.".Science presents an amazing picture of common things analyzedinto strange forms. First, it reduces all substances into moleculestoo small to be seen under the most powerful microscope. Thesemolecules it divides into atoms very much smaller than the mol-ecules. Then it takes the atoms and reduces them to protons andelectrons so small that the atom looks like a big pond of nothingwith a handful of very small minnows swimming around very fast.Finally it guesses that the whole thing is just a manifestation ofelectricity, which in turn is not matter at all but inconceivable power.So its whole study is to find out how an unknown power acts. Whatappears to you and me as a tree is described as something verydifferent, but not a bit more true. The scientist reduces it to powerjust as you and I trace it back to God. No man can say that the50 THE OPEN COURTone explanation is truer than the other. Our advantage Ues in find-ing our explanation more satisfying. The scientist has not foundany means of learning why his power acts the way it does. TheChristian explains it all as an exhibition of love that passes under-standing. Then it would be well to give up understanding and seekthe proofs of love.Now science undertakes to examine all the evidence and give atrue verdict. In nature it finds power and law in a universe sovast that no telescope can reach its borders, and so complicatedthat no microscope can search out its details. Religion discoveredboth in the dawn of history. Science finds love in living creatures,but fails to penetrate the mystery of the Eternal. Religion saysthat men have felt the love beyond their sight. It means some ofthese men and accounts for their greatness. Can science accountfor it otherwise? These lives and their greatness are facts of his-tory.Certain fishermen in the Roman province of Galilee began tell-ing a story two thousand years ago of wonderful experiences theyhad with a man brought up in the carpenter's trade. And a littlelater a great scholar declared that this man, who had died and beenburied, had spoken to him from the sky. These men were beatenand imprisoned, and finally killed, but their message lived. Andthat message, thru the centuries, has been the most important ele-ment in the improvement of human society. Modern science wouldbe impossible but for the interest in education aroused by a desireto place that message within reach of all men and women. Shallscience study rocks and bugs and ignore the greatest facts of humanexperience ?Granted that science is not equipped to weigh the evidence ofdivine love, is it not equally bare of equipment to disprove thatlove? Take the radio as a wonderful achievement of modern sci-ence. The air is full of music because great artists perform at thebroadcasting stations. Receiving sets all over the land catch thesound, and all kinds of people listen, some in delight, and some indisgust at lovely harmonies wasted on souls that feel no response.The Master said long ago, "Hearing they might not understand."And again he said, "Cast not your pearls before swine." God madehuman hearts to receive his message. No device of man can per-SCIENCE AND RELIGION 51form the fact. What would you think of a man who tried to catchmusic with a fish net?The evidence of God as friend and redeemer are where theymight be expected, and not elsewhere. The Hible is a record ofhuman experience. If I would judge the truth of Genesis, I mustfollow God as Abraham followed Him. If that course results inmy consciousness of God's friendship, I can believe that God dealtwith Abraham as the Book says he did. But I can't disbelieve vintilI have tried that experiment. And I don't dare rest my faith onmiracles. It is written, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."It is tempting God to ask Him to prove His word by a miracle.When Jesus was asked for a sign, he called the people wicked andfaithless and said no sign should be given but his own death andresurrection. He said also, "If they believe not Moses and theprophets, they would not believe though one rose from the dead."W'ith the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and your search-ing of signs and wonders will not find out God—is the teaching ofChristianity—and it is desirable to keep clear the claim of religionas well as that of science.Science reasons backward from what it sees, tastes, hears, smellsand handles; it doesn't hope to come within a million years of the"First Cause." The beginning is entirely outside the range of itsstudy. Religion is different. The first sentence in the Bible is aboutthe very thing which science cannot approach—the Beginning.Science puts its truth in sight. The Bible lays the foundation infaith. It teaches not merely the unseen but the unseeable. Thereis not necessar}' conflict, but a clearly marked difference of pro-cedure. Science is an endless, indomitable search. The Bible is abeacon pointing out the unsearchable.Science sa}s, I know nothing of God. It says I see immeasur-able distances and inconceivable power controlled by perfect law.Behind these things is the great unknown, ^fy business is withthings as they are. I try to use these to the best advantage andwaste no time asking why they are thus and not otherwise. Twothings I hate. One is lying, for my whole method is a search fortruth. The other is selfishness, for my whole spirit is impersonal;what I know I tell the world. Religion says, the spirit of man canknow the unsearchable. It says that the story of Jesus made a newway of life so great that civilization took a new direction and gaineda new power—and these things are merely secular history.52 THE OPEN COURTNow this is a distinct force in the world. Its power is verygreat. Its source is entirely outside the sphere of modern science.That source of power is beyond the range of scientific investigation.The most that science can do is to investigate the manifestationsof this force. The invisible may seem unreal, but it is not alwaysso. Many of our greatest physicians testify to the value of religionas a healing power. Dr. Howard Kelly, one of the most dis-tinguished of them all, has recently organized an association ofChristian physicians. That ruthless man of blood and iron. OttoVon Bismarck, recognized unseen forces controlling the destiniesof nations. He called them the imponderable—which means the un-weighable or incalculable. And modern statesmen still considerthe great moral currents which will not yield to their manipulation.The unknown—the unknowable if you please—is not always theunreal. It is in part the basis of all reality. There are many thingssubject to man's knowledge and control, but the ways of God arestill past finding out.And right here do science and religion join hands. Religionhelps science ; for it says, "Thou slialt love thy neighbor as thy-self." Now the man that loves like that is willing to share what-ever he may learn. And sharing knowledge is just as importantas getting it. The little that one man sees in one short life wouldn'tmake very much science. For science must see the veriest of triflesthousands of times, and in many relations, before it can be surethat it really saw what it thought it saw and not something entirelydifferent. And even then it must test this thing which it reallysaw by all the knowledge that it has. For science believes that alltruth is one, and simply cannot bear the thought of any contradic-tions. To its way of thinking, every fact in the universe must agreewith every other fact, \\liile science has very little to say aboutlove, it absolutely refuses to admit any man's right to know anyscientific fact and keep that knowledge to himself.And science helps religion, for it exalts the truth. It may notcare whether the truth is good or bad, but it does insist on its beingtruth. The real scientist is both honest and thorough as far ashuman strength and resolution permit. He knows that only truthcan endure, that the world will patiently weigh his work until ithas sifted out and rejected every error. Slipshod or dishonestwork is sure to be revealed some day, and likely to bring him dis-SCIENCE AND RELIGION 53credit very quickly. A great host of the world's brightest minds iseagerly watching everything he does, and criticising without mercy.For the work of science every day is a day of judgment, here andnow. Religion seeks for favor, but science is interested only in thetruth.There are unworthy scientists just as there are unworthy Chris-tians. Some scientists are befuddled. Are there not Christianslikewise afflicted? Some scientists are mercenary. Did you everhear of a selfish Christian? And if the scientific world embracescharlatans and fakirs, is the church entirely free from hypocrites?But when you compare the profound aims of science with the idealsof Christianity, you certainly find points of agreement. As a mat-ter of history, the church has its martyrs and science has them too.As a matter of fact both religion and science are leading men awayfrom degrading superstitions and dangerous vices. And as a mat-ter of fact both science and religion have their thousands of sin-cere and zealous seekers after truth. Are the builders of a betterworld or the scrambling seekers after place and power and favorthe more entitled to consideration?Now if we have two groups of people seeking the same thingthey ought to help each other instead of quarreling. The leader ofall true Christians tells them to know the truth. Scientists are seek-ing the truth too. Christianity undoubtedly helps science when itteaches people to be unselfish. And we find science making muchfaster progress in Christian lands than in any other. Science isteaching one of the most important of Christian doctrines when itseeks to know the truth for the truth's sake alone. The greatfounder of Christianity told us the truth would make us free. Shallwe repeat the error? When Jesus restored an infirm woman onthe Sabbath, he asked what man would not loose an ox or a sheepon that day ; and if it were worse to loose the woman that Satanhad bound for many years. Isn't science still loosing people—notonly from disease but from drudgery and loneliness as well ?But the truths of science are often so disturbing. So are thetruths of religion. The ancient prophets were so disturbing thatthey were beaten, imprisoned and even killed. Jesus and theapostles preached such unwelcome truth that they were taken tothe cross and to the headman's block. No man putteth new winein old bottles. The world will have scientific truth whether the54 THE OPEN COURTchurches want it or not. And because all truth is God's truth, thechurches will take and use the contributions of science, even ifthey have to discard some of the most important traditions of men.Galileo was imprisoned by the Church for declaring that the worldmoves. In his day people understood the Bible to state the contrary.We no longer read the book that way. Along the path of historyare the wrecks of many theories both scientific and religious.The old order changeth, giving place to the new, lest one goodcustom should corrupt the world. We need new faith for the newday, just as we need new knowledge. Scientific theories havetheir day and cease to be. Other theories result in finding God'struth, which is eternal. Religion can afford to adopt the policy ofGamaliel—if God is not with those who introduce alarming newideas they will fall of their own weight ; if He is let us be carefulnot to be fotmd fighting against God. Who knows but that God isrevealing his glory to modern science as truly as he spoke to theprophets of old? \\'e of today may be as blind as those who criedout, "Crucify Him."Religion cares for the fatherless and widows. Science doesn'toppose that kind of thing. Neither does it say, "Be ye warmedand filled." and give nothing needful for the body. On the con-trary it works the magic of making two blades of grass grow whereone grew before. It digs sewers, builds highways, multiplies thecomforts of existence. Religion cares for people's bodies and wel-comes the help of science in so doing. True religion is not Jonahsitting at the well at Ninevah, but works with science for the goodof even that cruel heathen city.There is no real conflict between science and religion. Theyhelp each other, but it is also true that they deal with widely differ-ent aspects of events. Science seeks and obtains material blessings.Religion seeks the fruits of the spirit—love, joy, peace longsuffer-ing, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Science isat the bottom of modern prosperity ; it is seeking out the mysteriesof nature, and making it easier for man to subdue the earth. Re-ligion in its teaching love, faith and the other spiritual fruits has norival. We depend on science for our knowledge of rocks and bugsand greater tools with which to labor. We depend on religion forour knowledge of the greatest facts of human experience.As a nation .and as a world, we are rich and troubled, wise andSCIENCE AND RELIGION 55perplexed building a mansion of prosperit}' upon the shifting sandsof human knowledge and human resolution. Ought we not to seeka rock that can resist the storms? Does not the fine linen of Divesoften cover an aching heart? Happiness needs a foundation thatcan never fail. Prudence counsels that we look for something thatcan never change. For this the Christian offers his Bible. Whynot let science help in the interpretation of that Book? Parts ofthe Bible may have been misunderstood but its genuineness as arecord of human experiences has never been successfully impeached.And the experience recorded there is experience with God.

Science and Religion.

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Science and Religion.

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