SCIENCE AND RELIGION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13926, 7 December 1908, Page 8

SCIENCE AND RELIGION.

Sir,—-It is a strange coincidence that in to-days issue of tho Heiialu, on the page following ihat on which you report my lecture witn the above heading, in the course of which 1 am stated to have said that it is now almost impossible for a truly scientific man not to be a religious man also, appears a letter under the heading "Lord Kelvin and a Belief in God," from Mr. H. J. Blyth, in which he ventures to predict that in a generation persons who pin their faith to the miracles ot the Old or Now Testament will inevitably bo regarded as persons of weak intellect or deficient education. Mr. Blyth ventures to assert that science in our day has demonstrated conclusively that the miracles of the birth, resurrection, and ascension of tho Founder of Christianity are contrary to natural law unci therefore never could have happened. It is therefore worthy of note that'*. W. H. Myers in his book, "Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death," makes the following statement (page 2bii, Vol. 11.):— "1 venture now on a bold saying}: for 1 predict that, in consequence of the new evidence" (i.e., that gained; by the Psychical Research Society) "all reasonable men, a century hence, will believe tho of. Christ." Evidently, then' scientific research has not proved that the resurrection of Christ never could have happened, unless, indeed, you will not admit that the work of this socioty is scientific research. Mr. Blyth makes another statement that is not, I think, a plain statcmont of facts, viz., that scientists imply by their belief in God " simply their recognition of a controlling, inscrutable Power behind all natural phenomena." Judging from what he says in his " Substance of Faith Allied with Science," 1 gather that the principal of tho Birmingham University has a deeper belief than this. On page 132'0f his book, in answer to tho question (No. 15), "What, then, do you reverently believe can bo deduced from a study of the records and traditions of the past in the light of the present?" Sir Oliver Lodge gives the following reply, which, I take it, we may accept as his creed: "I believe in one Infinite and Eternal Being, a guiding and loving Father, in whom all things consist. I believe that the Divine Nature is specially revealed to man through Jesus Christ our Lord; Who lived and taught and suffered in Palestine 1900 years ago, and has since been worshipped by the Christian Church as the immortal Son of God, the Saviour of the world. I believe that the Hory Spirit is over ready to help us along the way towards goodness and truth ; that prayer is a means of communion between man and Gd; and that it is our privilege through faithful servico to enter into the life eternal,.the communion of saints and the peace of God." Ho would bo a bold man, I think, who would venture to assert that tho author simply recognises ?' a controlling inscrutable Power behind all natural phenomena." ■'. Equally bold would he be to deny to Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., the principal of the • Birmingham University and co-dis-coverer with Hertz of electric waves, his rank among those "advanced "thinkers the scientist*," who, as I view it, are daily proving that there are move things in heaven and earth than ether, matter, and energy, and that, even the profoundest thinker is but as a child on the edge of the ocean of tho infinite, picking up" a shell or two of knowledge, and wondering vaguely What lies beyond. 11, H. Robjohns, B.Sc. St. Matthew's, Auckland.