CAUSES OF THE SUPPOSED CONFLICT BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION.
SCIENCE AND REVELATION HARMONIZE--WANT OF REVELATION THE CAUSE OF
BARBARISM--BENEFITS AND EVILS OF ROMANISM--CONFLICT CONCERNING
GEOGRAPHY--PHILOSOPHY OF COSMAS--STRUGGLES OF COPERNICUS--BRUNO
--GALILEO--OPPOSITION OF LUTHER--SERVETUS BURNED--PROTESTANT
BIGOTRY--CAUSES OF INFIDELITY.
Truth is ever harmonious. Science and religion, in the true sense
of the terms, can never be in conflict with each other. The direct
revelations of God to man must ever agree with the results of
scientific investigation. Invention and discovery are but the unfolding
of the laws, attributes and objects of nature to man's finite
understanding--the action of the divine will on the minds of men.
So, whether man seeks for spiritual truth through the revelations of
God, or looks out upon the material world and investigates the working
of physical laws, the result must be the same. A truth revealed to
the sensitive, impulsive human {21} heart to-day in its full play of
emotions and passions cannot be at any real variance with a truth
written upon a far-off planet rolling in the depths of space, or upon a
fossil whose poor life ebbed away thousands of years ago. Yet, strange
to say, a conflict has been going on for years between some students of
science on one side and the devotees of religion on the other. Nearly
all the great and good men of the medieval or modern times have been
engaged on one side or the other, and a hard contest it has been. The
war has been waged longer, the battles have been fiercer, the sieges
more persistent, the diplomacy more far-reaching, and the revenge more
deadly than ever characterized the military campaigns of Alexander,
Caesar or Napoleon.
Let us then inquire into the causes of this conflict and try and
understand something concerning it. In the first place we must be
careful not to underrate science. On every side we see its beneficent
effects. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the houses we dwell
in depend in a great measure upon it for their existence. When we
travel it is mostly by the appliances of science. The books we read
are manufactured by its aid. It transmits our messages to and from
our friends, and prepares the light that illuminates our streets and
dwellings. It has contributed greatly to relieve human suffering and
promote human happiness, and to distinguish the civilized from the
savage races of the earth.
And what has religion done? So long as it was {22} true and pure it was
the favored child of heaven. While the true church existed upon the
earth, whether Jewish or Christian, we hear of no conflict between its
members and the students of science. On the other hand we find from
their writings that Moses, Job, David, Solomon and Isaiah were the
leading scientists of the ages in which they lived. They understood
natural history, architecture, sculpture, poetry, music, botany, and
in astronomy they made such progress that many of the constellations
still retain the names they used, such as Orion, Pleaides, etc. (_See
Job xxxviii_, 31; _Amos v_, 8.) We read of no conflict between the
truths of science and the teachings of Paul, though he was one of the
most learned men of the age in which he lived. On the other hand the
discourse of Paul in the court of the Areopagus, was the complement
or sequel of ideas already held by the most celebrated Grecian
philosophers. (_See Acts xvii_, 19-23.)
It was not till after the great apostasy, when the voice of inspiration
had ceased, that the great conflict commenced between science and the
so-called Christian church.
We shall better understand this fact, when we recollect that from the
time of the apostles to the ninth century, science, literature and
philosophy were well nigh extinct. No schools of painting flourished,
no models in sculpture were designed, no order of architecture arose,
no great poem was written, and no history compiled, which have been
deemed worthy to be transmitted to our times. It {23} was only when
European society came largely in contact with Jewish and Saracen
influences during the wars of the Crusades and in contact with the Jews
and Saracens of Spain, that any decided advances were made. As if to
mark out to the world the real cause of its intellectual degradation,
the regeneration of Italy commenced with the banishment of the popes
to Avignon. Their exile continued more than seventy years; and during
their absence, so rapid was the social and intellectual progress
that on their return to Rome, they found it impossible to make any
successful resistance, or to restore the old condition of society.
Yet even in her apostatized condition the Catholic church did much
for the amelioration of society. At the commencement of the fourth
century of the Christian era, a cloud of more than Cimmerian darkness
overshadowed western Europe. It was then occupied by wandering savages.
The period embraced in the next thousand years greatly improved its
condition. It was during this period that the population were organized
into families, communities and cities. Those centuries found it full of
bondmen--they left it without a slave. Where there had been trackless
forests, there were now farms, orchards and villages. Instead of bloody
chieftains drinking out of their enemies' skulls, there were parish
priests teaching the masses the crude beginning of religious thought.
Instead of gladiatorial combats, which characterized ancient Roman
civilization, there were {24} thoughtful men gravely pondering the
problems of free agency and moral responsibility.
Enveloped as she was by the evils of the times, the Catholic church
gave rise to many improvements. She taught the doctrine of an ultimate
accountability for personal deeds, of which the ancient inhabitants
of Europe had very indistinct perceptions. Under her direction the
brotherhood of man was taught as it had never been before, and was
illustrated, not merely by individual acts of charity, the memory of
which is soon forgotten, but also by the establishment of permanent
institutions, such as hospitals, alms-houses, schools and asylums
for the relief of the afflicted, for the spread of knowledge and the
succoring of the oppressed. Many of her high dignitaries, and even
popes, were men who had risen from the humbler ranks of society. These
men, true to their instincts, were often the champions of right against
might. In an age of tyranny, the very organization of the church was
essentially republican. It thus paved the way for modern representative
governments, and prepared the minds of men for their introduction.
Still it was not over nations and communities that Rome showed her
chief power, but in her control of domestic and individual interests.
History presents no record like hers. Her pontiffs in the quiet halls
of the Vatican could equally take in a hemisphere at a glance or
examine the private character of any individual. Was there a rebellion
in Spain? Her agents informed her of {25} it. Was there an obscure
philosopher in Germany writing down the results of his investigations?
She also knew it. While she restrained the power and tyranny of kings
by her influence, she also relieved the hungry beggar or wandering
minstrel at the monastery gate. In all Europe there was not a man too
obscure, too insignificant or too desolate for her. Surrounded by
her solemnities every one received his name at her altar, her bells
chimed at his marriage and her knell tolled at his funeral. By her
confessionals she extorted from him the secrets of his life, and by her
penances she punished him for his faults. In the hour of sickness and
trouble her servants sought him out, teaching him to place his trust
in God, and strengthening him for the trials of life by the example of
the good and faithful of former days. And when at length his lifeless
body had become an offense, even to his friends, she received it into
her consecrated ground, there to rest till the resurrection morning.
She raised woman from nearly the condition of a slave and made her the
equal and fit companion of man; and in turn, received a recompense by
a firm friend in every home. In an age of bloodshed and plunder she
lifted up her hand in defense of the weak, and made her sanctuaries a
refuge for the despairing and oppressed.
But here arose the difficulty. The so-called Christian church by
apostasy had lost the key of revelation. Her decisions depended not
upon the voice of inspiration but upon the musty parchments of the
past. Claiming to be the church of {26} God, she regarded her decisions
as infallible and irrevocable, her teachings as beyond question.
Her ideas were crystalized; her philosophy, if indeed it was worthy
of that name, was stationary, as must be the case with all systems
reposing on a final revelation of God. In the domain of the Catholic
church during the space of a thousand years, namely from the time of
the apostles to the eleventh century, not a book had been written,
not a painting executed, nor statue sculptured of sufficient merit to
rescue the name of the author from oblivion. Throughout the length and
breadth of Europe there fell a dark cloud of intellectual stagnation,
an invisible atmosphere of oppression ready to break down morally and
physically whatever opposed its weight; except where a few feeble rays
of light were kept flickering by the efforts of Jewish and Mahometan
scholars. She at once disclosed her human and denied her divine origin
by attempting to force fixed laws on society in the presence of higher
truths and advancing civilization.
The first great conflict was in reference to geography--the shape and
surface of the earth. When science disclosed the fact that the earth
was round, there was a great commotion, and so much the more since it
was by Mahometan scholars that the discovery had been made. It was
asked, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" In other words,
"Is it possible for vile Mahometans to understand and teach such a
truth when it is not yet known to the assumed church of God?" At {27}
once the war-spirit became fierce and hot. The great writer Eusebius
treated the doctrine with contempt. Lactantius asks, "Is there any
one so senseless, as to believe that there are men whose footsteps
are higher than their heads? That the crops and trees grow downwards?
That the rains, snow and hail fall upward to the earth?" (_For further
particulars see Whewel's Hist. Induct. Sciences, Vol. I, page_ 196.)
At this stage of the controversy, Cosmas Indicopleustes, by direction
of the Catholic church, undertook to give a description of the earth.
According to Cosmas, the universe is in the form of an immense box,
twice as broad as it is high and twice as long as it is broad. At the
bottom of this box lies the earth, surrounded by four great seas or
oceans. At the outer edges of these seas, rise immense walls, which
support the vault of heaven, even as the walls of a house support the
roof; and thus walls and vault shut in the earth and all the heavenly
bodies. This vast box he divides into two compartments or stories.
In the lower one men were said to live, and sun, moon and stars to
move. The upper one was said to be the abode of God and angels, whose
principal work was to push and pull the sun and planets to and fro, and
to open the windows of heaven, and thus regulate the quantity of rain.
The ignorance or impudence of Cosmas can only be partially imagined,
when we recollect that he supported his theory by reference to the
Bible, and quoted _Genesis i_, 6; _Job xxvi_, 11; _Psalms cxlviii_, 4;
_Isaiah xl_, 22. All the sublime poetry and {28} beautiful imagery of
these texts were thus debased to give credence to the wild vagaries of
this ignorant man.
Space will not permit us to follow this contest in all its phases:
suffice it to say that so late as the fourteenth century Cecco d'
Ascoli was burned alive for asserting his belief in the rotundity of
the earth. (_See Neander's History of the Christian Church, Vol. II,
page_ 63.) The student of history will also remember how Columbus at
the great council of Salamanca was overwhelmed by texts of scripture
wrested from their rightful meaning. It was only after the successful
navigation of the earth, by Magellan's ship, the _San Vittoria_, that
Rome ceased to persecute the adherents of this doctrine. In all this
contest Rome's dogmas only resulted in injury to herself. The authority
of the scriptures was not in the end weakened, but rather strengthened;
but to thinking men, Rome's claim of divine right to interpret the
scriptures was of little value. Rome had been "weighed in the balances
and found wanting."
It was therefore in a scientific not less than a religious point of
view that many leading minds looked with favor toward that great
religious, movement known as the Reformation.
While Luther, Calvin and Zwingle were busy denouncing the corruptions
of the Romish church, the forces were preparing for the second
great conflict between science and so-called religion, namely, that
concerning the motion of the earth. Copernicus lived at the same time
as Luther, and died {29} two years before him. His was as brave a life
as ever lived in story. For thirty-six years, at the very time the
Protestant struggle was raging, he was working at that immortal book,
_De Revolutionibus Orbum_, in which he so clearly demonstrates the
motion of the earth, and the revolution of the planets around the sun.
But he dared not print it for many years. If he published it at Rome,
it would fall into the hands of the Inquisition; if he caused it to be
printed in Germany, there were the Protestant leaders no less hostile;
if he sent it to Switzerland, there stood Calvin and Zwingle ready to
burn it. At length the work was ready for the press. By the entreaty
of the Romish Cardinal Schomberg, and with many apologies, Copernicus
ventured to publish it. He was now old and feeble. Patiently he waited
at death's door to see a printed copy. At length the long looked-for
copy arrived, he saw it, composed himself and died, 1543.
Seven years after the death of Copernicus, was born that strange
mortal, Giordano Bruno. For teaching the rotation of the earth he had
to flee to Switzerland. But Calvin held power there and Bruno was
soon obliged to leave. Driven in succession from England, France and
Germany, and, like Noah's dove, finding no rest for the sole of his
foot, he at length ventured to return to Italy. He was arrested in
Venice, and after eight years of solitary confinement, was burned at
Rome, February 16, 1600. When the atrocious sentence was passed upon
him, he nobly replied, "Perhaps it is with {30} greater fear that ye
pass this sentence upon me than I receive it."
Meanwhile Galileo was prosecuting his studies at Florence. In May,
1609, he made his first telescope and pointing it toward the heavens
saw the satellites of Jupiter and the phases of Venus. These were two
of the weightiest arguments that had as yet been presented in favor
of the Copernican theory. Already Galileo began to encounter vulgar
indignation which accused him of impiety. In 1611, Galileo publicly
exhibited the spots upon the sun. This only excited the rage of his
persecutors. Goaded by opposition he wrote a letter, in 1613, to
the Abbe Castelli, showing that the scriptures were given for our
salvation, and not to teach astronomy in particular. This was repeating
Bruno's offense. Galileo was brought before the Inquisition, and, after
years of imprisonment, only saved his life by denying the great truths
he had discovered. He died 1642, in the seventy-eighth year of his
age, the prisoner of the Inquisition. But religious bigotry did not end
there. It tried to follow him beyond the grave, disputing his right to
make a will and denying him burial in consecrated ground. Nor were the
leaders of the Protestant cause less bitter.
In reference to Copernicus, Luther declared, "People give ear to an
upstart astrologer, who strives to show that the earth revolves;" and
again, "This fool (Copernicus) wishes to reverse the whole system of
astronomy." Melancthon, in his treatise _Initia Doctrinea Physicae_,
says, "The eyes are the {31} witnesses that the heavens revolve about
the earth in the space of twenty-four hours," and adds, "Now it is
a want of decency to assert publicly the notions of Copernicus;"
and Zwingle declares, "The earth can be no where, if not in the
center of the universe. It is a part of a good mind to accept the
truth as revealed by God, and acquiesce in it." (_See Geschichte des
Materialismus, Vol. I, page_ 217.)
[ILLUSTRATION: BURNING OF SERVETUS.]
Further, Calvin proved the darkness of his own mind when he put to
death that celebrated philosopher and physician, Michael Servetus,
whose greatest crimes were that in religion he denied the absurd dogma
that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three separate and distinct
beings and yet one and the same person; and in science he had partially
succeeded in discovering the circulation of blood. The circumstances
were also of the {32} most atrocious character. Servetus was roasted
for two hours in the flames of a slow fire made of green wood.
Meanwhile he was begging for the love of God that they would put on
more wood or do something to end his torture.
So also in superstition the Protestants were not a whit behind the
Catholics. In presence of the Protestant king, James I., of England,
it was declared that Agnes Sampson with two hundred other witches had
sailed in sieves from Leith to North Betwick church to hold a banquet
with the devil. It was also said that the witches had baptized and then
drowned a black cat, which caused a terrible storm in which the ship
that carried the king narrowly escaped being wrecked. King James and
the high church dignitaries who formed his privy council, believed the
accusation and condemned the poor woman to the flames.
The leaders of German Protestantism were Luther and Melancthon, yet
even they were victims of the grossest superstition. They believed
that in the Tiber, not far distant from the pope's palace, a monster
had been found having the body of a man, the head of an ass and the
claws of a bird of prey. After much speculation and searching of their
Bibles, they concluded it was a manifestation of God's anger against
Rome, and they wrote a pamphlet about it. (_See Buckle's Hist. of
Civilization._)
It is a quite common error to suppose these persecutions to have
emanated from the papal power exclusively. When we read of Copernicus
escaping {33} persecution only by death, of Bruno, burned alive as
a monster of impiety, of Galileo imprisoned and humiliated as the
worst of misbelievers we are apt to look upon these things as the
effect of Romish intolerance. But we should not forget that Kepler
who stands pre-eminently conspicuous, who lead science on to greater
victories than either Copernicus or Galileo, who thought and spake as
one inspired--even he was hunted alike by Protestant and Catholic. Nor
was this feeling of intolerance confined to any particular age. On the
contrary we behold its continuance even to our own times. In Protestant
England so late as 1772, the celebrated Dr. Priestly was not permitted
to accompany the famous expedition for scientific discovery under
Captain Cook, because he did not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity
as taught by the Church of England.
On the 10th of May, 1859, was buried Alexander Von Humboldt. His labors
were among the greatest glories of this century, and his funeral one
of the most imposing of modern times. Among those who did themselves
the honor of following his remains to their last resting-place was the
present emperor of Germany. But no minister of any sect was present
except the officiating clergyman and a few others who were considered
as not in good standing in their respective churches. By these
instances and many others it might be shown how has been wrought into
the very fibre of modern society that pernicious idea that there is a
necessary antagonism between science and religion.
{34} The lessons thus taught were clear and convincing. Many
intelligent minds saw that Protestants as well as Catholics lacked not
merely the charitable spirit of the gospel, but likewise that knowledge
and authority, which are the certain results of divine revelation. The
result was soon apparent. A violent reaction followed. Germany, the
birthplace of the Reformation, is now the stronghold of infidelity.
And why was this? What was it that made large numbers of the best
men in Europe hate both the Catholic and Protestant religions? Why
did Ricetto, Bruno and Servetus in the hour of martyrdom turn with
loathing from that sacred emblem, the crucifix? The reason was simply
this: So-called Christianity had been made to them identical with
the most horrible oppression of mind, because they who had assumed
to represent Christianity had misrepresented it. In other words, the
absurd theories, rigid dogmas and heathenish superstitions of apostate
Christianity bore no more resemblance to the benign and heavenly
principles of the gospel, than an ancient Egyptian mummy, with its
shrunken skeleton and ghostly visage, bears to the person of a living
being in the meridian of his mental and physical powers. (_See appendix
to Vol. IV. Histoire des Mathematiques._)
Did space permit it would be easy to show that the Protestant sects
have opposed scientific truth as bitterly, and been overthrown as
completely as Rome has ever been. Not merely in the examples {35} of
geography and astronomy, but also in chemistry and natural philosophy,
as shown in the imprisonment of Roger Bacon and John Barillon; in
anatomy and surgery as illustrated in the persecutions against
Versalius, the great anatomist of the sixteenth century. Nor was it
merely in the olden times that this opposition was manifest. Scarcely
eighty years have passed since Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination,
barely escaped with his life from the persecutions of leading
religionists in Protestant England, for conferring upon mankind the
knowledge of prevention of a horrible disease. So, also, in 1847, James
Y. Simpson, the eminent Scotch physician, who did so much to alleviate
human suffering by means of anaesthetics, was denounced throughout
Europe and America by the leading Protestant ministers. The persecutors
seemed to forget that, in the first surgical operation of which we have
record, God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam. (See _Genesis ii._,
21.)
So, also, in geology, scarcely forty years have elapsed since both
Protestant and Catholic leaders were denouncing that science as a "dark
art," "infernal artillery," and "an awful evasion of the testimony
of revelation." While such honored names as Prof. Sedwick, Edward
Hitchcock, Louis Agassiz and Mary Somerville were denounced coarsely
by name for those studies which unfold the wonders of creation, and
illustrate the goodness of our Heavenly Father--studies that have made
their names honored throughout the world. (See _Silliman's Journal_.
Vol. 30, page 114.)
{36} And what has been the result of all this? In the older nations
have come forth, by natural reaction, the most formidable enemies
the so-called Christian church has ever known. Of these Voltaire and
Renan may be considered types, and there are many signs that the same
causes are producing similar results in our own country. Yet Renan,
Bennet and Ingersol are not haters of truth. Rather may it be said,
they hate counterfeits and are indignant at the assumptions of apostate
Christendom. In their impetuosity they have rushed into the other
extreme, and demand for science more than she can rightly claim.
* * * * *