SCIENCE AND RELIGION.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20169, 23 February 1931, Page 17

SCIENCE AND RELIGION.

, v (By Sjr Arthur Eddingtoa: fr»m\a aukna&ry'in the n I Review ; of • Reviews.") If you-will look up 'at,the,sky hrthe direction of, the constellation Andro-. meda - and stand for a few 'moments scrutinising "the famtpst- star yoti-"Bee, yon will notice one that is nojr-ft point of ,light\ike 'the rest, b'uth"as.4 hazy appearance. This star is uniquq and barely visibly to the naked eye. It is *tot»properly a star. We might rath<?t describe - it -lira universe, It teach<§sv.us that whfett.Wtf have iaken together the. bihi and-Uibso stars Ve can see with'the eye,, and the' hundreds of millions of telescopic stars, we' have not 'yet -reached the end of things. We explored 6nly »one. iskfiH, ona oosis in the desert of space. In the far distance' we d;s r . . cern another island which is that hassy/ patch of light" in Andromeda, With the. help of the telescope, we can-wake 'but a great raaiiy jnore; in fact, a*whol©j archipelago of islands .stretching away one behind .'another, untfl our sight fails. , That Bpeck of light "which, anyone may see 1 is a sample of one of 'these islands. It is a world not only remdte in 1 Bpaep, but reciote in time, Ijong. , before the dawn of- history, the ;> Jight : now entering our, eyes .started on journey across the., great gulf between the islands. When ;yq.u ; -look At it, you are looking "back nine hundred thousand years into -the past. " ' -f? • - Amid- this profusion' .of. world! ;4n space and time*, where do we Our home,, the -earth, *is ..the ■ fifflHpf sixth largest planet' belonging to aTrrnconspicuoua little star in' one. of ,the. numerous , islands ■ 19, the- archipelago. Doubtless there, are-other globes which arej or .have been of similar nature' 1 to ourselves,but we hay,e some .xetfßon. to think that such, gfdbes are . u^ ; . common. Tie majority of the heavenly bodies seem to be big lutaps "of matter with terrifically high temperature. Not; often has there been the. formation of small, cool globes ' fit for habitation, ( though it has happened occasionally by a rare accident. Nature seems, to have | been intent on $ vast scheme of evolution of fiery globeß, an epio of millions of years. \ • As for man, hr might bo treated omy. as unfortunate incident, just trifling incident,, not" of very soriojts consequence to the universe, No aeea to be alwayij raking npj agauurt Nature : *• ' f H'**•'(•

hfljr oAe littto iaaJyei^n(».^^*eri^ mniestv of tllo Wltvtrti U ptObaWy ■ force,- BuK»ata~4wplajr« pnrpoae. cart" TepreHfenvJbssh» righteousness, «<£ JWrf;7»TS.' a h P ark £rpm tH *.V« > -^.>s It" may say thatour badio«*re pi>Majo£jmatt?r, whichiiby a <i6Jjt|uig«ilpy not wmtientiy „ofetSe;low temperature to asspsa^.iiuniaa«hl£ P 9 'Bn4'f>erf<rtmi unties .which - ■ I do-not c'omb&t tMa to' bapa phjlopophy.or TdHfJO^onjthj assumption ;th»V it must -neeeßsaruy down, bat; alongside this there w "t&Sfi'riM* » ..t .«■•«.. jsa tflrsft* ArsaA sucop& t>u± does - »ofc„Btart. <yuts- at . tn§. beginning' of thg,-J>robleni of wpwlepcjM The^-flrst- question a&ed„*bOttt£RCt*; or theories tfdb as,' I ha?e bfea «e®-;-eriblngiss Am tbey*ant.to emphasise thai even 1 inorerigbinctot than the -astronomical -reJBIW- ttoOH, sejves ia tm about. fhem-: SO. ujgafctly a#seK; -She question,'Jfc" -S" change the epwj>l<«ioii of #£ experience sot because the world world* ' v v' '■' ' If we go-tight bacfei toth* begmflingr the first thing; we mujt W; world,* is. something something in matters intently-, that a thing BhaU.be time, its. *ey of rediscovers ' the. presence /of., «ueh' an 'in* fedientjts trntn, we}l tend "« nw, & ingredient rewiins now/tliji lp«f:&■■. sential, ,ior, otherwise the wholes question StUltififtdA . _'-- ■; '\„', \ >L'/.What ia the truth ,abottt,-oqrßelyesl We may .incline fc> various- answers; s We. aye complicated physical inaeWneryj we .are reflections ina celestial mass; wa;are puppet&Von the.Bjtage of lire, by ttfe hand of ,tidie whichturns the handle \beneath. . . " * I would ,-»y that the" human heart the cry goesiijf, What is ft "all aboutf it ia. no true answer to, look only at 'that part of' experience ; v(rhiMi comes to us cprtain sensory or« gans and retily", It is about atontg and cfhaos, it i§" about a universe of fiery globe? raoyihg 'on to impending dooi?i» it is Bboyt, non-computated algebra, but father it a fepipit in Which.truth has ifsv; shrine, with; potentialities of m its response to jbeauty and right. 1 \ I *' . ■ It is'the essenco of religion that presents tblftqiitetfl oxporiente us aottnr of everyday life. ~ v\ ' *

I*.the .fota. of, .aaad^ot*r,a gtwot.; 2te KSe is the fsmlmr ?wsj% Ang ana'scMli* ttymbaiia :«?ionMe • -TKif^wvX 110 «o^™^3r* BU^oitndinga-ur Ssajioßta tig**? of it <meftktr j» /baVe r "^«&Ef^^^^ if it is <>4? A«tl& WH& &mitmtt«w.: eomci ;that G*a in reality »»4it not merely B'wp to my I /^nr'Stor that'wfcu&^ffvWU ; l^SSsaSBflH ' ,thitji to - .aeeau iron' SodjMrjeiy; - neat %a odisider thi w», wrt Hmml aat. hamsafHeads .after, texaat&ed,-tiw-;: vL- S'2 . It; &Qea\n6t vf»11, yrtthb jkf give<the questioner'tho"4saiutim^M^^S^l pires. whflthotvtfteifr ' jgaranpe' {6 h>, obtained 1 the flxpert^ce'it^^Jtet ' biaa hold Jt&st to' loa tb'it that thai wilL -tratb 'than codifying and