RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 154, 2 July 1927, Page 22

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT DAY OUTLOOK. (Contributed.) DOGMAS Or SCIENCE.

Last Sunday evening, at the Unitarian Church, the Rev. Albert Thornhill, M.A.. said scientists had rightly protested against those ecclesiastics who would limit investigation by the cosmogony oj Genesis; but religious people had an equal right to protest when geologists or biologists uoginathed concerning things spiritual. l n man y a scientific treatise evolution had been enthroned as God, and the Universe had been reduced to a self-propelling machine. Manv people had been led to believe that man was merely a slightly advanced species of ape, whose development was the result of atomic .attraction and repulsion law materialistic creed had been hurled at a hostile orthodoxy by Haeckcl and iiis apostles with disastrous results. For not only was fairb in orthodoxy shaken t.ierelty, but faith in anv spiritual concept -on of life. Hence the conviction grew that .science was the sworn enemy 01 religion—which, of course, was quite i« *e. Still they had a right to protest aga.ngt mere opinion being expressed as proven fact, and this had occurred agam and again, not only in the sphere of religion, but in the sphere of science. J here was.no room for dogmatism in either sphere. Newton and Einstein. Mr. Thornhill pioceeued to show that maiiy theories 01 science which had been put forth as beyond doubt or question Had atterwards been found to be partial, incomplete, ox quite ... wrong. .even JNewtun's.theories concerning gravitation and light had. to be modified in view 01 Einstein's discoveriesi -while DaltOn's theory that atoms were the basic subetancs of all worlds had been seriousto discounted through the discoveries 01 iodge and Rutherford ._ and others. Irtuessor Moore, of Cincinnati, haa written a book in which he charged scientists with becoming as dogmatic in their assumption of authority as the Chu»ch of the Middle Ages. That charge was perhaps truer of th« (scientists of 25 yeans ago than of to-day, tetill, Professor Moore had a strati" case. He attacked the Spencerian theorv that man's highest attributes were evolved through "the chemical irritaoifcty protopalsm," a theory which helu the held lor nearly half a centurv 6 » d ** 8 « ot Jet completely discarded All this belonged to the region ol dogma It had ho support in the observed facts of science. Again, the theory of natural selection was put forth %t the final explanation of the varied :? P fV V - reas mol °gy now suggested that the selective power of obscure elements in the cell,was a far more powerful determinant than environment Unproved Assumption. -. Again, the unproved, dictum ol Tynctal that "matter contains within itself the promise and potency of all «£ w f 3 , 4 ado pted-as tne key principM of Haeckel's monistic materialism. And the fevil results of that unproved assump tion could be traced in the agnostic writings of the past half, century, and ii the broken faith of -many. Men and women, said the preacher; had ceytiii intuitions or feelings which they collet moral and spirituaj-iifeeimgs of duty feelings of right and wrong, feelings oi reverence for what was recognised at above them. If these were illusions induced by mere chemical changes in the brain; if they were not revelations of a higher closest contact with man's then, indeed, were they chartless, Godless flotsam and jetsam, floating on the Bea s Pl„ci«(inoe,.and at the mercy ol every wind of passion or caprice. B so, it would be. idle to talk of duty; idle to praise virtue or condemn Vice: Idle to think they, could have done ©thei than they did; idle to resist base im pulses, or to argue, or persuade. Yel Haeckel's theory was incapable of proof and full, of gaps and pitfalls. It tailed to explain whence the ether received thi first impetus to move; it failed t< account for the appearance of life in th« non-living; it was baffled by the problems of- sentiency or consciousness, ant it was lost completely in the mor« varified region- of the self-conscious, th« volitional, the ethically responsible, tin God-conscious. ' T '■'"". -"• - '~ Opinion and Fact, It was absurd to suppose, as manj didi that there was. an impersonal "Godlike entity eaßed science, that had auth ©rity to utter-una} judgment upon at questions. It was equally foolishto suppose that there was -«ji . impersonal entity called religion which uttered fina' judgment upon motives and acts, beliefi and aspirations, hopes and longings concerning life here and hereafter. Ir both sphere*i there was a body of experience which each must test for himself. In both- fields titers 'were earnest seekers who.reported oh what they had found. But the mischief was that the seekers off en told a good deal more' than they had discovered. ' They told ;whal they .surmised- concerning; the iavei unknown. This wrought mischief; fbi the uncritical did not distinguish between opinion rand fact, between surmise and- proof.' .•;•■-•■* The Primal World-Stuff, Even the electrical theory of mattei was fast becoming a : dogma, and-yei within.the past year or two'Milliken and Jens, had advanced .the- theory that neither ether nor electrons were "th« primal world stuff;;.. Instead of ..the universe being built up from ether; through the . creation of electrons; atoms, molecules, nebulae; constellations, suns and planets, these great scientists suggested that it was constructed from the dust of atoms of a wonderful com-, plexity—Eotoms which- changed their inpredicnts billions of times each second. The effects of this theory would be to revolutionise our conceptions of the cosmos. In the face of these facts, it was clear that -there; was no room for dogmatism .. in ..science any more than in religion. It would be wrong to reject science because great scientists "discarded- old theory*" and advanced new ones.. It was equal!,* wrong and foolish to discredit religion because its greatest exemplars discarded the dogmas of-their predecew?#*s and set new standards of faith and conduct before the people of their tim» Preaching at .the 'Marylebons Presbyterian Church,, Dfr'B. d Gilie said:— *If I know abx)uty English Christianity, I :tbinjtvit is more' free to-day;' froni , hypocrisy,,!., from mere hanger*-on, than it has been for centuries. Outside attra<jiwto:-'iw|L, / too strong today for peopls to ;frffc,3fggo Church; it iiw«n« .UtliilU choice and dUdslon to attend #ulilic worship. Tha Church to-day <*, I ffflf obUfly out very much husk ebnut.lt., But «»* cau'tot «.«y that English Chrt.tt.alt> pwMffepU sum*icßtly the warm heart/