Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

"From harmony, from heavenly harmony,

This universal frame began,

From harmony to harmony

Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in man.”

I have now indicated, at more than sufficient length for one discourse, some of the principal recent changes and present tendencies in scientific belief, especially in biology. Even the most advanced of the views here presented are held. by very many scientific men,-some as established truths, some as probable opinions. There is a class, moreover, by whom all these scientific theories, and more, are held as ascertained facts, and as the basis of philosophical inferences which strike at the root of theistic beliefs.

It remains to consider what attitude thoughtful men and Christian believers should take respecting them, and how they stand related to beliefs of another order. That will be the topic of a following lecture.

LECTURE II.—THE RELATIONS OF SCIENTIFIC TO RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

IN

a preceding discourse I brought to your notice a series of changes in view and opinion which have taken place among scientific men within my own remembrance. I restricted the survey to the biological sciences (with merely a reference to the principle of the conservation of energy in its application to the organic world), and in these to the supposed facts and immediate inferences, to what may be called their natural-historical interpretation.

These new views are full of interest of a kind which you cannot expect a naturalist to undervalue. For they have greatly exalted his calling. In the days of Linnæus, who died only a hundred and two years ago, and throughout a long generation of his followers, species were

looked upon as "simple curiosities of Nature," to be inventoried and described; and striking phenomena in plants and animals, as something to be wondered at, but not to be explained. With the advent of Morphology, the precursor and parent of Evolution, Natural History developed from a curious' pursuit, training the observing powers, to that of a true science, engaging the reason in the search for causes. According to one definition, "Science is the labor of mind applied to Nature." In this sense, modern botany and zoology have certainly become scientific. They are at least attempting great labors. But in widely extending, as they now do, the operation of natural causes in the organic world, they make close connections between biology and physics, or what used to be called, and I think deserves to be called, natural philosophy. And the connection brings in, or brings up afresh, considerations which affect the ground of natural and revealed religion. Under this aspect, they properly excite your anxious attention.

I used throughout the phrase "scientific belief," as the one best suited to the occasion. The term is comprehensive and elastic, covering many degrees of conviction or assent, from

case.

NATURAL SCIENCE AND RELIGION.

59

moral certainty down to probable opinion. In this respect, scientific and theological beliefs are similar; as they also are in being mainly states of mind toward that which is incapable of demonstration, either because, as in the case of ultimate beliefs (on which all science and knowledge are based) it is impossible to go beyond them, or else because the subject-matter is not positively known, and certainty is unattainable from the nature or the present conditions of the The proofs upon which both biological and theological investigations have to rely are largely probabilities, some of a higher, some of a lower order, and much that is accepted for the time is taken on trial or on prima facie evidence. Much also is or should be held under suspense of judgment, a state of mind eminently favorable to accurate investigation. As to those who can forthwith assort the contents of their minds into two compartments, one for what they believe and the other for what they disbelieve, neither their belief nor their denial can be of much account. In all subjects of inquiry, those only are to be trusted who discriminate between inevitable beliefs, established convictions, probable opinions, and hypotheses ⚫ on trial.

Now, our general inquiry in this lecture is, What should be the attitude, I will not Bay of theological students, but of thoughtful .men, in respect to scientific beliefs, tendencies, and. anticipations, such as we have been considering?

To a certain extent it may well be a waiting attitude. The strictly scientific matters must necessarily be left mainly to the experts, whose very various and independent investigations, pursued under every diversity of bias, must in time reach reasonably satisfactory conclusions. But the naturalists claim no monopoly in the consideration of the great problems which now interest us, in which indeed most of them decline to take any part. Perhaps theological students and divines might be asked to wait until views and hypotheses still ardently controverted among scientific investigators are brought nearer to a settlement. But the disposition to discount expected results, either for or against supernatural religion, has always prevailed. The theologians at least have never waited, and cannot be expected to wait; and while some of their contributions to the subject have been inconsiderate, others have been most valuable.

In any case, there is no call to wait on the ground that the disturbing views are only hypotheses. For, in the first place, we should have long to wait for demonstration one way or the other; and one crop of hypotheses is the fertile seed of another. Besides, hypothesis is the proper instrument for dealing with this class of questions; indeed, it is the essential precursor of every fruitful investigation in physical nature. You can seldom sound with the plummet while standing on the shore. To do this to any purpose, you must launch out on the sea, and brave some risks. Nearly all valuable results have been gained in this way. Newton's theory of gravitation was a typical hypothesis, and one which happened to be capable of early and sufficient verification. The undulatory theory of light was another. The nebular hypothesis, or portions of it, and the kinetic theory of gases, less verifiable, are accepted willingly because of the success with which they explain the facts. Evolution is a more complex, loose, and less provable hypothesis, or congeries of hypotheses, which can at most have only a relative, though perhaps continually increasing probability from its power of explaining a great variety of facts. Its strength appears on com

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »