y emancipated
from the trammels of their long cherished traditional beliefs.[45] This,
as the whole context shows, means that a man in order to be entitled to
be heard on the evolution theory, must be willing to renounce his faith
not only in the Bible, but in God, in the soul, in a future life, and
become a monistic materialist.[46]
It is very reasonable that scientific men, in common with lawyers and
physicians and other professional men, should feel themselves entitled
to be heard with special deference on subjects belonging to their
respective departments. This deference no one is disposed to deny to men
of science. But it is to be remembered that no department of human
knowledge is isolated. One runs into and overlaps another. We have
abundant evidence that the devotees of natural science are not willing
to confine themselves to the department of nature, in the common sense
of that word. They not only speculate, but dogmatize, on the highest
questions of philosophy, morality, and religion. And further, admitting
the special claims to deference on the part of scientific men, other men
have their rights. They have the right to judge of the consistency of
the assertions of men of science and of the logic of their reasoning.
They have the right to set off the testimony of one or more experts
against the testimony of others; and especially, they have the right to
reject all speculations, hypotheses, and theories, which come in
conflict with well established truths. It is ground of profound
gratitude to God that He has given to the human mind intuitions which
are infallible, laws of belief which men cannot disregard any more than
the laws of nature, and also convictions produced by the Spirit of God
which no sophistry of man can weaken. These are barriers which no man
can pass without plunging into the abyss of outer darkness.
If there be any truth in the preceding remarks, then it is obvious that
there can be no harmony between science and religion until the evils
referred to be removed. Scientific men must come to recognize
practically, and not merely in words, that there are other kinds of
evidence of truth than the testimony of the senses. They must come to
give due weight to the testimony of consciousness, and to the intuitions
of the reason and conscience. They must cease to require the deference
due to established facts to be paid to their speculations and
explanations. And they must treat their fellow-men with
|