Science and Religion and the Finality of the Globe.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 406, 28 September 1889, Page 5

Science and Religion and the Finality of the Globe.

Speaking lately before the Christian Evidence Society, Sir William Thomson, the great physicist, affirmed that when scientific men said there was no God, it appeared to him that they did not express their own ideas clearly or faithfully ; indeed, they were out of their depth. If a scientific man looked upon a piece of dead matter he was looking upon a living miracle, for his very thought about ib was a contradiction of the idea that there was nothing present but dead matter. Science could do little ior such a society as this, but that something, though little, was fundamental and vital. He said forty years ago to a German scientist, ' Science has its miracles,' for there are miracles of geology. The German philosopher contended that the whole material world and the beings in it were the result of laws of force and inertia, which weie as calculable as those the astronomer had for the motions of the heavenly bodies, and that there were no other laws but such as giavication, chemical force, and chemical action); in short, that the laws of dead matter sufficed to explain every phenomenon. Yet he (Sir William) thought the very fact of their discussing it was a contradiction of the German's position, else it would bo like stones discussing with stones why they fell by gravitation. Yet he did not think that his German friend, who is {.'till alive, would now be in thought exactly where he was then. Scientific men did feel that there was something that in their earlier theories they overlooked, something beyond the laws of dead matter in the phenomena they contemplated. Commenting on 2 Peter, iii , 4, Sir William deplared. that there was no possibility qi t^ngs going on for ever a? they have been the last fivo thousand years or more, and there was no periodicity in science. Old combinations could not be revivified. Whether this earth was 6,000 or 100,000,000 years old, it was not infinite ; it was once red-hot globe. Then if life did come, as some believed, from another world, carried on a moss-green stone broken oil" from some mountain in a neighbouring planet, as fragments come to-day, it did not in the slightest degree diminish the wonder of the creation of planets, animals, and, most awful of all, the creation of man.

The amended conditions for the rewards for discovery of new goldfields are again gazetted, and in view of recent discoveries in this provincial district, shoqld be interesting tq out readers. They are as fpllow :—l.: — 1. The maximum sum offered as a reward tor any proved discovery of a new goldfleld in accordance with these conditions is £5,000 for the North Island, and £5,000 for the Middle Island. 2.- The newly - discovered groldtield must be situated not less than forty miles from any existing goldfield or any existing workings. 3. No reward shall be payable until 50,000 ounces of gold have been pi'oduced from the newly-dis-covered goldfield within three years from the date of its being registered. 4. Any person discovering new gold-workings, and being desirous of obtaining the reward, shall immediatel} forward a, u ritten report of sjjcK discovery, wi^h, f,u}l particulars, to the Vfarden or Magistrate of the distrjpfc wifchin which such discovery shall be situated, and the Warden or Resident JMagi&trateshallforthwith register the report as an application for reward.