SCIENCE & RELIGION.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18673, 23 April 1926, Page 13

SCIENCE & RELIGION.

THEIR MUTUAL RELATION. A PROFESSOR'S VIEWS. "Far from being mutually antagonistic science and Christian belief are truly complementary, and their respective advocates should never havo been other than the best of friends working-'in different departments for the benefit of mankind, and trying to raise it higher and higher to grander conceptions," stated Profossor C. E. Weatherburn, Professor of Mathematics at Canterbury College, in his presidential address before the College Scientific Society last evening. Mr J, Struthers presided over a good attendance. The lecturer said that tho fatal idea of science and Christian belief being mutually incompatible obsessed the European conscience for many centuries —in fact for some 1200 years. The history of the rupture made it clear why so many minds were alienated from the Church, and forced into an utterly wrong conception of Christian religion. Early Opposition. From the sixth century to the eighteenth, nearly all the great advances in scientific thought were opposed by the leaders in theology, because the new ideas did not agree with their interpretation of tho Scriptures. First, the theories of the rotundity and rotation of the earth, and then those of modern Astronomy as expounded by Copernicus and Galileo were solemnly condemned, and their advocates subjected to bitter persecution. Texts of Scripture were quoted abundantly, such as "The earth standeth fast for ever"; and, in opposing the discoveries which Galileo had made by means of the telescope, the Dominican Father, Caccini, preached a sermon fronf the text "Yo Men of Gallilee, why stand ye gazing up into Hqaven.'' The early experimenters in Physics and Chemistry were subjected to similar opposition, and were charged with sorcery, magic, and "unlawful compact with the devil." Id more recent times some of the discoveries in Medicine and Surgery met with like treatment. When the practice of Inoculation was introduced, it was commonly declared from the pulpit that diseases were sent by Providenco for the punishment of sin, and that the. proposed attempt to prevent them was a "diabolical operation." Similarly, when Chloroform was discovered, Its use was denounced as impious,, particularly so in obstetrical cases, where it was clearly an attempt "to avoid one part of the primeval curse on women." Thp moral of this experience was that scientific theories must be established by scientists alone working with scientific methods. Function of Scriptures. "Tho Scriptures were not givon to mankind to serve as a text-book of science and a touch-stone of scientific theories," continued Professor "Weatherburn. MGod doos not reveal to man what man can discover for himself. The Scriptures contain God's revelation of spiritual things, for the discovery of which the methods of natural science are of no avail. This revelation was progressive, culminating in God's supreme revelation of Himself in tho pergon and teaching of Christ, providing a spiritual force which was beyond man's power to discover. The four records of Christ's life and character, made by men who were his intimate companions, and had the Y~ t means of knowing both their Master and His teaching, possess in the highest degree the essentials of genuine history, and constitute the most precious written heritage of the human race."

The speaker went in to draw an analogy between the outsido assistance that was necessary for a true understanding of the colours of tho spectrum and that necessary to understand knowledge and truth and the intellect was that part of man which was primarily concerned with the perception of the light of knowledge and of truth. Scientific men were at all times reluctant to admit that there were kinds of knowledge and truth which they were unable to fathom or appreciate without higher aid. But when the rays of Spiritual knowledge impressed themselves on human character the scientist became convinced that there was a realm of knowledge which it could not appreciate without divine assistance Duty of Science. Rightly interpreted science and Christian belief ran tide by side, the light of each being moßt powerful when the other failed to shine. The scientist must ho allowed free scope in research in the realm of material things, and the forces of Nature, But be

would make a tragic mistake if he spent all his euergy on the material aide and neglected the spiritual It was true that the material side was the most important merely from the point of worldly progress. "But this material side is only ono aspect of our complex life," concluded Professor Wcathcrburn, "and this side is most beautiful when it directs our thoughts and aspirations to higher things." (Applause.) The lecturer was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.