RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT-DAY OUTLOOK.

(Contributed.)

SCIENCE AITD LIFE.

A FASCINATING SEARCH.

The special sensation of this year's meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was Professor Donnan's paper on "The Mystery of Life." The audience was thrilled by Dr. Donnan's announcement that his friend, Dr. Hill, was "on the eve of an astounding discovery at the gate between life and death," having nearly made a living cell in his laboratory. But the thrill did not live long, for when Dr. Hill was told about the announcement he had a good laugh. He said he had not attempted to discover the secret of life and had no hope of ever discovering it. The statement that he could make a living cell in his laboratory was "utter nonsense." Spontaneous Generation. The long search for the link between living and non-living matter makes a fascinating chapter in the history of science, and in modern times the search has acquired a religious significance. The possibility of bridging this gap is abhorrent to some timid people, who think that God would be driven from the world if it could be shown that life emerges from non-living matter by some natural process. But belief in spontaneous generation was almost universal in the' Middle Ages, and the theologians saw nothing objectionable in it. They took it for granted. In the course of time, however, the scientists began to look upon spontaneous generation with doubt and disfavour, though the general public continued to believe that earthworms developed from damp soil, and vermin from shavings. As far as. the •man in the street was concerned there was no gap between living and nonliving matter. But the scientists began to brush aside such beliefs as popular superstition, and it became an axiom of scientific thought that all life comes from previously existing life. The controversy was vigorously carried on in the Eighteenth Century by two priests, Needham and Spallanzani. The former supported the theory of spontaneous generation and the latter opposed it. It was Spallanzani who first performed the experiment of boiling infusions in hermetically sealed vessels after which treatment no life was developed in them. Pasteur's classical experiments about the middle of the Nineteenth Century seemed to give the death blow to the theory of spontaneous generation. Huxley admitted that the theory that life only comes from life was "victorious all along the line."

, Continuity. But spontaneous generation is so thoroughly in line with the theory of evolution that modern scientists'refuse to admit that it has been completely and finally disproved, and many of them are still trying to bridge the gap between the living and the non-living. The bridging of this gap would not cause any panic among modern theologians, who are watching the search for the missing link with great interest. Its discovery would not clear up the mystery of life, nor would it answer the fundamental question: What is life? How did it originate? Herbert Spencer does not solve the problem when he tells us that "at a remote period in the past, when the temperature of the surface of the earth was much higher than at present, and other physical conditions were unlike those we know, inorganic matter, through successive complications, gave origin to organie matter." But the modern scientist is fascinated by the ideal- of continuity. He dislikes breaks and gaps. He wants to prove that the whole scheme of things is the result of a process of orderly development. So, in spite of Spallanzani and Pasteur, he persists in believing r in spontaneous generation. There is nothing irreligious in this belief. St. Thomas Aquinas, the pillar of orthodoxy, when he rebuked Avicenna for teaching spontaneous generation did so because Avicenna thought that it was by the power of matter alone that life arose, whereas St. Thomas asserted that if matter does produce life it is because the Creator has given it the power to do so. Sir Bertram Windle, a distinguished Roman Catholic scientist, declares that a transition from non-living to living matter at some period is far the most likely thing to have occurred. What he claims is that, if it occurred, it did to at the will of the Creator and by virtue of the powers which He gave' to it. He does not deny that it is possible that this power is still inherent in non-living matter and may even be continually manifested, though we are unable to recognise the fact. Free Inquiry. Modern theology has made* it quite clear that evolution does not mean atheism. It calls for a theistie inter* pretation. As interpreted by theism the theory of evolution finds room (to quote Biahop Mercer) for "the scientist's adhesion to his hypothesis that all physical phenomena, are varying form* of an omnipresent energy. The way is open for free inquiry in every direction. Science, philosophy, theology— each and all can grapple with experience in its entirety. No mode of research or speculation is barred; no honest seeker for truth is suspect. Light is welcomed from whatever quarter it may come. Feeling and intuition come i? m£ V&** m due subordination to the dictates of sober reason. For bv whatever road we arrive at truth we arrive at that Being, always and everywhere active, who is at once the Imminent source, sustainer, and goal of the Cosmos which manifests Him."

"Truth spnngeth out of the earth" was the text upon which a thoughtful sermon was preached by the Rev. R Scott Frayn at Westbourne, Wesleyan Church, Bournemouth, England. The preacher said: "Natur has yielded many secrets to our patient and reverent inquiry. There are many more truths to spring out of the earth. Modern science believes itself to be trembling upon the verge of many discoveries. The unrealised resources of the universe are beyond our wildest dreams. There are powers beneath our feet which, when realised, will far outstrip the powers we already possess, though these are already colossal. Yet even the scientist is praying that they may net be revealed to us till we are more worthy to use them. At present we might only use them in our selfish wrangling, and blow each other up. At present we are only like a lot of silly ■children let loose in a powerhouse, fooling with the switches! The resources of the world about us may well be delayed for the coming of the kingdom within •nr wayward hearts,"