THE STRONGEST TRIPLE ALLIANCE

New Zealand Tablet, 18 April 1912, Page 43

THE STRONGEST TRIPLE ALLIANCE

-■. —— ■■ «—... SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION , \ln the course of ;an address delivered recently. before the Canadian Club at Toronto? the Rev. Bernard Vaughan, S.J., spoke in part as follows: A scientist: of some repute in a day gone by asked the question, Whence come we? Whither go we?' and he went on' to say: 'The question dies away without an answer, .without even an echo on the. boundless shore of the unknown? Very humbly, I submit, that one reason why ye met -with no answer to his question is that he did, not put it in the proper quarter.■" Science as such does not deal with . our whence and our whither,. but with phenomena, and with facts generalised into laws. Within that area lies its mission? and not beyond that frontier. To ? investigate the ; causes , and i the sources of knowledge is the province, not of science-, but of philosophy. It .'is * the business of the philosopher to take up the last link in the chain-of phenomena dropped by the scientist, to argue thence to the existence of a First Cause. If besides being a scientist and a philosopher the inquirer is also a follower of Revelation, he not only ; looks back to his origin, but dips into the future to find out his destiny • and he proclaims to all who come' to -listen, in the words of Christ, 5 ' I know whence I came and whither I go.' : ,^\

' Science, Philosophy, and Religion. ./ There is, as you see, a strongly formed Triple Alliance between Science, ; Philosophy, and Revelation. Each of its three schools , contribute its share _of information to man's stock-in-trade ,of truth. What has science to _ tell us? ? She : says that this- puny, petty islet, set in the vast archipelago, on whose surface man finds his temporary dwelling place, was once a ball of fire, thrown off from a ball still bigger, which gradually, as it rotated on its axis, and ? swept around the sun, began to cool, till there was spun and woven its present coat of many; colors.' '■'% * ' "-"'H When -Science wanted to know who £it * was that first of all started the big hall spinning, who was : the Prime Mover of the first thing moved, she appealed-to the Philosopher, who with Newton and Siemens with Stewart and Tate, with Faraday, Clark, Maxwell, Dawson, made answer, with the great Kelvin: ' There are overwhelming' proofs of. intelligence and benevolent design around us, showing us, through nature, the influence of a free will, and " teaching us that all living things depend upon an everlasting Creator and Ruler.' What Philosophy:-proclaimed; Religion confirmed. - - r; hand in - hand, the Christian exclaimed ; -■*,- In" the be-

ginning God- created heaven " and earth.' To which Science and, Philosophy answered,£ So be it. Amen.' ../ " .< -■■ ■■■■■. ■ ■■-■■- ■ ■-■■_. t ~;,....-■ :".—*." ■--■—■i " - ■'■—. -.1 «. «,.„■.,.■, »'• v Initial Life. - ?. There is another, bit of • useful -information tossed out to us by the hand of Science". Science tells in the days gone by there was a time when such was the high; temperature of the earth - that not even the - simplest form of life/could; or a moment exists upon its bosom. Then was the earth a pathless, arid/barren : land ?--,:. When, then, did life first appear? ; About initial life Science can tell us no more than she" can about the 'primitive nebula,' f : and that is nothing at all. She : . must knock at the door of Philosophy to learn the source of things, and the spring of life. What saith the Philosopher? i He ; says, Turner, in lis inaugural address at the British Association, We know not as regards time when the fiat went "-forth- "let there be life," and there was life. '- The only thine we know about initial life is what" Pasteur, Lister, and Koch knew about it—that as there is no such thing as life at - all, but as the offsprings ■; of previously existing life, we must bow to the philosophy which comes to our rescue, and argues that there must be « some self-exist-ing Being, Who, stooping down to our planet, brooding over the mineral world, breathed into its face the Breath of Life, till at length -our little * earth began to vibrate to the pulsations of a life all its own.' wilt Philosophy put before us i as result of her investigations, religion again confirmed by the words of the creed: God breathed into the clay the breath of life and man became a living soul.' j. €• -•/"-■■ ' As Science has shown us the beginning of our little round earth, so does it point to us an end to the energies of our system. As to whether our planet will be burnt up before it is burnt out, Science^ cannot say. All that she knows is that within a measurable distance ?t i m si ? G m ? eratu re of the earth will fall so low that tideless and inert, it will then s no longer tolerate on its surface the race which for a moment ITdi*. turbed its solitude. ...--. • **> uis

W 1 It 6 ! on f f n ? eudless procession has already begun. What I want to know is this: What is it that, with the things of time and sense, we bury? /Is it man's soul and body or his body only f. Science can only answer this question by saying v . 'Neither, my scalpel, nor my CnL;° r tUb6 ft y6t Covered.!

r Science and the Soul. abouf^lu 6 S ? Science knows only what I know about the ultimate component part of the matter absolutely nothing at all, r Science, stretching forth her two hands to Philosophy, J the philosopher

into her ear these words of comfort: ' The soul is the ultimate principle of human life. It is immaterial, ; spiritual, immortal. .-' As the eye implies color and the ear sound, so the universal v desire is for immortality.'-. i The -philosopher, buoyed up with hope, turns to Revela- . - tion for confirmation of what he-has so painfully soughtj! £ and found..within ■ the v inner folds ■■ of his mind; Here ■'■■■ Revelation comes forth, taking Science and Philosophy by the hand, and standing up with her ; face turned ; towards Heaven, and her eyes streaming, with lovev ■ : tears, /gazing/;into./the/: great beyond, she exclaims: - : ' I know whence I come and whither I go;T start from; God, Igo on with God. My end is God.' Science 7 ■/ - and Philosophy, with .all their trust in Revelation, ; turning to her gently, whisper, 'Amen, amen!' ;