THE GREAT CONFLICT. 227 



THE GREAT CONFLICT. 1 



By JOHN WILLIAM DEAPEK, M.D., LL. D. 



WHOEVER has had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with 

 the mental condition of the intelligent classes in Europe and 

 America, must have perceived that there is a great and rapidly-in- 

 creasing departure from the public religious faith, and that, while 

 among the more frank this divergence is not concealed, there is a far 

 more extensive and far more dangerous secession, private and unac- 

 knowledged. 



So wide-spread and so powerful is this secession, that it can neither 

 be treated with contempt nor with punishment. It cannot be extin- 

 guished by derision, by vituperation, or by force. The time is rapidly 

 approaching when it will give rise to serious political results. 



Ecclesiastical spirit no longer inspires the policy of the world. 

 Military fervor in behalf of faith has disappeared. Its only souvenirs 

 are the marble effigies of crusading knights, reposing on their tombs 

 in the silent crypts of churches. 



That a crisis is impending is shown by the attitude of the great 

 powers toward the papacy. The papacy represents the ideas and as- 

 pirations of two-thirds of the popidation of Europe. It insists on a 

 political supremacy in accordance with its claims to a divine origin 

 and mission, and a restoration of the mediaeval order of things, loudly 

 declaring that it will accept no reconciliation with modern civilization. 



The antagonism we thus witness between Religion and Science is 

 the continuation of a struggle that commenced when Christianity be- 

 gan to attain political power. A divine revelation must necessarily 

 be intolerant of contradiction ; it must repudiate all improvement in 

 itself, and view with disdain that arising from the progressive intel- 

 lectual development of man. But our opinions on every subject are 

 continually liable to modification, from the irresistible advance of hu- 

 man knowledge. 



Can we exaggerate the importance of a contention in which every 

 thoughtful person must take part whether he will or not ? In a mat- 

 ter so solemn as that of religion, all men, whose temporal interests 

 are not involved in existing institutions, earnestly desire to find the 

 truth. They seek information as to the subjects in dispute, and as 

 to the conduct of the disputants. 



The history of Science is not a mere record of isolated discover- 

 ies ; it is a narrative of the conflict of two contending powers, the 

 expansive force of the human intellect on one side, and the compres- 

 sion arising from traditionary faith and human interests on the other. 



1 Preface to the "History of the Conflict between Eeligion and Science," No. XII. 

 of the " International Scientific Series," to be published shortly. 



