SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 188, 29 October 1927, Page 8

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Sir,— It would be hard to make a more incorrect assertion than “A.E.C.’s” statement that the natural sciences rest on a basis of solid facts, while theology rests on a foundation of pure speculation. These “solid facts” on which science is supposed to rest exist only in “A.E.C.’s” naive imagination. The philosophical scientist knows nothing of them. Before the scientist can do anything he has to assume the existence of an external world, the reality of space and time and the uniformity of nature. This means a tremendous act of faith. In his “Recent Development of Physical Science,” Mr. Whetham states that with the modern development of experimental research has arisen a searching inquiry into the philosophic basis on which the whole structure of modern science has been built. “We can only study Nature through our senses—that is, we can only study the model of Nature that our senses enable our minds to construct; we cannot decide whether that model represents truly the real structure of Nature; whether, indeed, there be any Nature as an ultimate reality behind its phenomena.” If this is true —and it undoubtedly is—what becomes of that “solid” foundation on which according to “A.E.C.” the natural sciences rest? Does “A.E.C.” know anything about the theory of relativity? In the light of this theory, “A.E.C.’s” “solid facts” crumble to pieces. Professor Wildon Carr tells us that if we adopt the principle of relativity “the obstinate, resistant form of the objectivity of the physical world dissolves to thin air and disappears. Space and time, its rigid framework, sink to shadows.” The idea that the physical world is more real than the spiritual world is crude and obsolete*

The ultimate reality is spiritual—the activity which is manifested in life and mind. Spiritual, or religious experience brings us into more direct touch with reality than our experience of the physical world. Science and religion are both founded on acts of faith. “A.E.C.” tells us that science rests on “solid facts.” Great scientists tell us that science rests on mystery. “Let us admit, as scientific men,” writes Sir Oliver Lodge, “that of real origin, even of the simplest thing, we know nothing.” NORMAN BURTON.