DESTINY OF MAN

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6614, 19 May 1928, Page 7

DESTINY OF MAN

SCIENCE GLIMPSES NEW HEIGHTS

Breaking the Bondage of Matter

SIR OLIVER LODGE, the English scientist, recently delivered an address at Christ Church, Westminster, London, on “The Outlook for Humanity,” in which he gave ic view of the future of man. mt of Sir Oliver’s address:—

three reasons for his optimist The following is an abridgeme

Jii recent times there lias been a recrudescence of what is spoken of as the conflict between religion and science. I have known people greatly disconcerted and depressed by the utterance last autumn of the president of the British Association concerning tho origin of man. It has been thought that man’s outlook was spoilt and degraded by the idea of an

animal ancestry, and 1 have known people inclined to throw up the sponge and give up hope because of the findings of science, which they did not properly understand. This seems to me so contrary to a wise attitude that 1 have tried to indicate a. more rational view. Discoveries in science should bo accepted from experts, unless wo are competent to judge tor ourselves. There is no infallibility among experts—they may make mistakes—but still theirs is (ho host knowledge available ill. the time. But J could show that their statements are not in opposition to statements from a different point of view. People should not feel discouraged at every partial exposition of growing knowledge. Discoveries

should be received with delight. Growing pains are unnecessary. Advances in knowledge do not limit or restrict man’s outlook; that is not their function. His outlook is extended and improved by science, not curbed and controlled. The Vast Universe Knowledge can continue to grow to all eternity, and yet not exhaust reality. The whole universe is suffused with ntelligence, life, mind, but at present we are for the most part directly aware of only such aspects of it as are accessible to our normal senses. I wish I could make you realise how vividly that is before my mind—that the whole universe—and I do not mean only the lumps of matter in it—the earth, the planets, but the intervening spaces also, to my mind, are full of intelligence, life, and mind. But we only know a little fraction of it which is as it were crystallised on one of the planets, this earth, and has so become accessible to our normal senses. Those are the windows through which we look out, like narrow prison gratings. We see only a little of the infinity which is there all the time out of our ken. Reasons for Optimism There is no need to feel depressed. Youth is pressing forward with undaunted energy. The psychical aspect of man is no longer ignored. Wider and nobler truths are being recognised by science. Human welfare is being attended to, and in spite of obstacles the outlook is bright. Why do I look at the future of man, even at the future of society, so optimistically? For many reasons. I will give you three, setting them in increasing order of importance. First, because of the social revolution which has occurred during my own lifetime and is still going on. It. may be spoken of as the emancipation and increasingly welcome co-operation of a previously partially suppressed half of the human race in the management of the affairs of this planet. They had a severe struggle tor this opportunity of service on a larger scale. It is impossible to exaggerate the

vital importance o£ women in the affairs of this planet. The very term motherhood carries with it immense significance. The unrecognised labour of the working wives, the control of the domestic arrangements, the spenders of the wages and the keep-ers-together of the house, and the nursing in illness —all these difficult tasks are performed without much recognition. That has gone on from time immemorial. But now a further step is being taken and they are entering into public life. Do we think that the emancipated moiety will make no mistakes? Not for a moment. Wisdom is the growth of time and experience. Spirit of Self-Sacrifice Second, I look forward with hope to human destiny because of the goodness and self-sacrifice of the (pate ordinary man. That spirit of selfsacrifice is not often called out by circumstances, but when called for it is forthcoming. Witness the heroes of fire, shipwreck, colliery disaster and the response to many another stringent and sudden call on common humanity. Wo had it in the war—heroic deeds constituting the one bright spot amid its horrors. But the summons is not limited to the destructive episode of war. It comes in peace-time. My third reason for optimism is because humanity is beginning to realise, even through the ministrations and investigations of an at present unpopular branch of science, that it is not isolated in the universe. Humanity as a whole is not so isolated as it had thought, but it is a temporarily materialised portion of a great spiritual world, wherein are powers and affections and intelligences innumerable, intelligences outside the scope of our senses, but watchful and helpful to the utmost of their permitted power. We are beginning to get into touch with them, though they have always been more or less in touch with us.

Human history has been guided more than we know; even national blunders have in the long run been overruled for good. Doubtless our unruly wills and affections have caused trouble and been responsible for many failures, but the more wc realise the efforts that arc being made on our behalf, and the more wo appreciate the importance with which they regard these temporary stages of our own planetary existence, the less obstruction they will meet with and the more willing we shall ho to co-operate with them in furtherance of the age-long plan. Spiritual evolution —that is our destiny in this and other worlds: an evolution gradual, with many graduations and rising to no assignable close. The passion for life, sometimes called the struggle for existence in the lower creation, is no selfish weakness; it is a factor in the universal energy. Our

racial restlessness, I believe, is the restlessness not of senility, but of adolescence. It ’resembles the approach of puberty rather than tha approach of death. Bathing in Ether We are beginning to transcend the material. We arc beginning to go beyond it even in science. The extension of the means of communication was due to the utilisation of something else than matter. We do not live by matter alone. Children kept in merely material surroundings develop rickets and many other diseases. We are not associated with matter only but with ether also. You know it is through the ether that tadiolelegraphy occurs, but it is through the ether that everything occurs. Wo get all the information about the stars through the ether. You feel the vibration of the ether when you hold your hand in the sunshine. When you rest in front of a fire it is the ether that you arc immersing yourself in, not matter. Matter generates the other waves, then you feel them. We have got used to wireless telegraphy and take it for granted, though we do not know what is happening, but in science we do know what is happening. Tha ether is a comparatively recent discovery. We do not know all its powers, but we arc always using them. Our association with matter has produced a whole crop of problems which, we have not known bow to tackle. Not by attending to matter alone shall we be able to deal with them wisely. Most of our mistakes are due to a too exclusive attention to matter.