RELIGION AND SCIENCE
_Science, then, commands our respect, not on the basis that its
present assumptions and deductions are absolutely and for all time
true, but on the ground that its method is for all time true--the
method of discovery, the method of observation, research,
experimentation, comparison, examination, testing, analysis and
synthesis._
MAYNARD SHIPLEY, "The War on Modern Science."
_In the bare three and one-half centuries since modern science
began, the churches had conducted an unremitting crusade against it.
That much of this crusade had turned into a rear-guard action was
due less to the weakness of the defenders of the faith than to the
invulnerability of their non-resistant victim._
HORACE M. KALLEN, "Why Religion?"
Some sixty years ago in the "Dogmatic Constitution of the Catholic
Faith," the Church stated, "But never can reason be rendered capable of
thoroughly understanding mysteries as it does those truths which form
its proper subject. We, therefore, pronounce false every assertion which
is contrary to the enlightened truth of faith.... Hence, all the
Christian faithful are not only forbidden to defend as legitimate
conclusions of science those opinions which are known to be contrary to
the doctrine of faith, especially when condemned by the Church, but are
rather absolutely bound to hold them for errors wearing the deceitful
appearance of truth. Let him be anathema....
"Who shall say that human sciences ought to be pursued in such a spirit
of freedom that one may be allowed to hold true their assertions even
when opposed to revealed doctrine."
Can anything stronger be said to discourage research, investigation,
experiment, and retard progress? And only sixty years ago! It is but the
restatement of what the Church has uttered so many times and for so
long--that all knowledge, material as well as spiritual, is to be found
in the Bible as interpreted by the Church. It was this myth which had
stultified the mind of man for 1500 years (during the period in which
the Church was dominant); it was this that had killed the urge to search
and seek for the truth, which is the goal of all science, the means by
which humanity is set on the road to progress. This was the damnable
precept foisted on the minds of men which enslaved them throughout the
ages, and from which we are just emerging. This was the precept that
plunged the world into the Dark Ages, and retarded the advance of
mankind for centuries.
This is the reason that it is utterly impossible for the intellectually
honest scientist, and for that matter any individual, to reconcile
science with religion. On the one hand, that of religion, we have the
forces of intolerance, superstition, and the endeavor to besmirch,
repress, and ridicule every advance favorable to mankind; to cloak with
meaningless words obsolete rites, to stand in the way of human progress,
because it does not permit men to think boldly and logically. Science,
on the other hand, does not hesitate to tear down old conceptions, and
has only one motive, the ultimate truth. Religion has the purpose of
keeping the masses in the narrow and false path of only accepted
doctrines. The true scientist is the man with the open mind, one who
will discard the worthless and accept only the proven good. The
religionist closes his mind to all facts which he is unwilling to
believe, everything which will endanger his creed. Religion teaches the
individual to place all hope, all desire, in a problematical hereafter.
The stay on earth is so short compared to the everlasting life to come,
that of what interest is this life; all things are vain. The misery, the
suffering, of his fellow men leave him cold; he can only think of living
in the light of his narrow creed so that he may gain his future reward.
How well this philosophy has fitted in with the schemes of the select
few for the control of the many!
Truth to the scientific mind is something provisional, a hypothesis that
for the present moment best conforms to the recognized tests. It is an
evolving conception in a constantly changing universe. It is not that
science has attained true conclusions; not that the evidence at hand
must remain immutable; but that the scientific method of analyzing and
formulating assumptions on the basis of discovery, on ascertained facts,
is a superior method to the closed "infallible" method of "revelation."
These assumptions, based upon the known facts, lead to a working
hypothesis which in turn develops into a theory. If the theory is
adopted it must account for the facts known. But the theory is not held
as final, it is always changed or abandoned if necessary to conform to
the new discovered data. Science welcomes the critical attitude that
leads to the refinement of its theories. There may be today various
theories held by scientists in which they are mistaken, but the question
of the _method_ by which they arrive at conclusions can no longer be
under consideration with regard to its validity.
To the scientific mind, knowledge is something to be arrived at by study
and research. To the religionist, knowledge is something that is
contained in an infallible and supernatural statement or insight.
Religion exalts the transcendental; science manipulates only the
material. To the consistent religionist, his belief, as such, determine
the fact; to the scientist it is the evidence that establishes the fact.
To the religionist truth is something that is unchanging, that is fixed,
final, and heretical to question. Confronted with a constantly changing
universe, he would delude himself that his inner convictions give him a
finality concerning his evolving environment. It is therefore not so
much Science that the religionist is fighting, but the _scientific
method_. This scientific method of approach, he rightly perceives, has
so pervaded our mode of thinking that it is the subtle and most
disintegrating force that is shattering the religious foundations.
Dr. James T. Shotwell, speaking of the scientific method, concludes,
"But whatever strictures philosophy may pass upon the _conclusions_ of
science, as merely relative and provisional, there is no clearer fact in
the history of thought, that its _attitudes_ and _methods_ have been at
opposite poles from those of religion. It does no good to blink the
fact, established as it is by the most positive proofs of history and
psychology. Science has made headway by attempting to eliminate mystery
so far as it can. Religion, on the other hand, has stressed mystery and
accepted it in its own terms. Science is the product of bold adventure,
pushing into the realm of the mysterious to interpret its phenomena in
terms of the investigator; religion enters this same realm to give
itself up to the emotional reactions. Science is the embodiment of the
sense of control, religion yields the control to that power which moves
in the shadow of the woods by night, and the glory of the morning
hills....
"Science does not justify by faith, but by works. It is the living
denial of that age-long acceptance which we accord to the mystery--as
such. It renounces authority, cuts athwart custom, violates the sacred,
rejects the myths. It adjusts itself to the process of change whose
creative impulse it itself supplies. Not _semper idem_ but _semper
alterum_ is the keynote of science. Each discovery of something new
involves the discarding of something old. Above all, it progresses by
doubting rather than by believing." (_James T. Shotwell: "The Religious
Revolution of To-day."_)
_There has never been an advance in science of widespread importance
which in some manner or other endangered some mouldy religious concept,
that the Church has not bitterly opposed; an advance which in time has
proven of inestimable benefit for all mankind. A glance at the history
of human progress will reveal scores of such instances._
The two rival divisions of the Christian Church, Protestant and
Catholic, have always been in accord on one point, that is, to tolerate
no science except such as they considered to be agreeable to the
Scriptures. It was the decree of the Lateran Council of 1515 that
ordered that no books should be printed but such as had been inspected
by the ecclesiastical censors, under pain of excommunication and fine.
It is easily understood that having declared the Bible to contain all
knowledge both scientific and spiritual, and then passing a decree
ordering no books to be printed which did not agree on all points with
the Church's interpretation of the Bible, the Church was in absolute
control of all thought, both written and spoken.
It was to no advantage for the scholar to investigate any new fields,
for all knowledge which was possible for the mind to discover had
already been revealed in the Scriptures. Thus declared the Church. We
understand why it was that Copernicus did not permit his book to be
published until he was dying. We understand also that when Galileo and
Bruno had the courage of their convictions, and gave voice to their
beliefs, they were persecuted. Galileo was made to recant a discovery
that the youngest of children now takes for granted. Bruno was burnt at
the stake.
We know that astronomy was at a standstill under Church domination,
chemistry was forbidden, and the study of natural philosophy was
contradicted; while anthropology, which showed on what mythical
foundations the story of the fall of man rests, was squelched. The
attitude of the Church on geography was hostile to the truth, as witness
the persecutions of those who dared to venture that the earth was round.
Botany, mathematics, and geometry, as well as the natural sciences,
slumbered. Geology, which proved that the earth was more than 6000 years
old, was anathematized; archeologists had the greatest difficulty to
expound the truth concerning the antiquity of the human race. In purely
civil matters, the clergy opposed fire and marine insurance on the
ground that it was a tempting of Providence. Life insurance was regarded
as an act of interference with the consequence of God's will. Medicine
met the most strenuous of opposition.
It is impossible in this short study to analyze the specific forms of
retardation which the Church exhibited to all of these branches of
learning, whose only endeavor it was to search for the truth, to state
the facts, and to alleviate and make more bearable man's sojourn on this
earth. However, a few of the many instances of retardation on the part
of the Church will be pointed out.