BISHOP QUESTIONS SCIENTISTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 16 February 1935, Page 7

BISHOP QUESTIONS SCIENTISTS

“Is uot the time fast approaching when science should abandon something of that severe spirit of isolation which keeps it aloof from moral inquiries and stilt confines 't to th» austere analysis of natural events?’’ asked the Bisnop of Carlisle in a recent sermon. "Is it, for example, to remain content with the provision of antidotes to poisons which it has itself created, to meet the menace from the air only by more skilfully constructed methods of defence? Or is to come down into the arena where men strive and groan to free themselves from perils that are not natural but are perversions of the authentic human spirit? 1 do not believe that by prayers and supplication alone men can wholly free themselves from those moral diseases which paralyse our economic and social life. These need for their cure the bold and skilful analysis of the scientific mind, and they are equally ready with the diseases of the body for the surgeon’s knife. The greatest triumphs of art and literature have been won when men have taken for their subject-matter not the external happenings of existence, but the inner tragedies of the human spirit. May not a similar victory be won by science when, as I hope it will, it regards not only truth but justice and liberty as equally relevant to its great concerns? Certain it is for all men that where these great needs are not secured there will be little room for science, and truth will hide ms head.’’