"WHAT IS TRUTH?”

Gisborne Times, Volume LXX, Issue 11095, 3 January 1930, Page 2

"WHAT IS TRUTH?”

SCLEN CE A 1 IT; RE LIG lON AN INSEPARABLE TRINITY.' LONDON, Nov. 7. Sir Oliver Lodge delivered an address at tile ‘Liberal Jewish -Synagogue last Sunday , when lie expressed his belief in the ■ ultimate' outcome of the modern spiritual (rend of physical science. “Wo are makmg'our way iuwardsa great generalisation which, lit' said, in my view,' will extend away front matter altogether'imu the .unseen. I believe that' the linking ot. the spiritual and material s-s at baud. 1 am convinced ifr the. reality of the' spiritual world, and the; way it interacts with matter. MV have not quite reached that- point yet, but 'wo 'are groping our way, from the region .ot uncertainty to u great- reality.' ~ . . , • Science and ' religion,- ’ Sir Oliver Continued, are one, , and not [idles apart-, as is uiha-lly supposed. “By religion J. understand tb.e jvaction of mail .to the -whole of tin: universe. . By' science I understand a groping after * Gut.!.- a.- search eliminating all feelings and emotions, if possible. -There is go.od ness, beauty, ..and truth. Goodness is related especially to religion,beauty to art. and truth to science,; and yet these three arc one. They cannot be dissected from one another. “You may attend, to one ■ more than to another but you cannot really understand one without attention to the ‘ other, any more than' you can understand a tree by attending- to the-' root only or to th'o fruit only. They are an indissoluble whole. LIFE AN UNPROVED MYSTERY. “And yet people attending to one aspect arc apt to conflict with people attending to another. They speak a- different language. A scientist rarely uses; the word ‘God.’ His : aim is merely to ascertain the method of working the machinery and process. Ultimate, causes' are outside his'scope. “Senses alone do not lead us very, far, and tho universe does not consist of matter alone. We must go far beyond the. region of o.ur senses into the realm' of the unseen, into the spiritual, the' divine., imagination and vision are, as important to science as anything else. The brain does not think; the mind thinks and the brain only records' the thought and moves tile muscles but the reality, of things is in tho mind. “We have been living through a revolution in physical science and there is a tendency, as in Einstein's theories to draw our- attention from • matter to space, in physical science there is a good deal more mystery than there used to be. it-no longer lays down;the'law. We are-groping our way and finding out that what we thought we understood we do. not. We thought lust "century that we know what life was.' - Now we know that wo do not.' And yet, we" know far more than we did know but the more we know tho' more. we feel that there is sortie mystery,'that we, finve not proved.”' . •