THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



AUGUST, 1904. 



THE CONFLICT OF BELIGION AND SCIENCE. 



By EDWARD S. HOLDEN, Sc.D., LL.D., 

 V. S. MILITARY ACADEMY, WEST POINT, N. Y. 



" Though all the tcinds of Doctrine were let loose to play upon the Earth, 

 so Truth be in the field we do injuriously . . . to misdoubt her strength. 

 Let her and falsehood grapple, who ever kneic Truth put to tlie ivorse in a free 

 and open encounter? " — (Milton — Areopagitica) . 



f 1 1 HEEE are many books that deal specifically with a supposed conflict 

 -*- between religion and science, or with a warfare between science 

 and dogmatic theology. It is my conviction that the view-point of 

 most books of the sort is badly chosen, and I desire in this preface to 

 set forth briefly the reasons for thinking that the battle has often 

 been joined on a wrong issue. The question is fundamental and 

 deserves a much fuller treatment than can here be given. To make 

 it entirely clear it might be necessary to reprint one of the warfare- 

 of-science books with a commentary, meeting every argument as it 

 arises; exhibiting and enforcing a different point of view; and proving 

 that the change of view-point was reasonable and necessary. Lacking 

 the space for extended argument, it is necessary to condense it. 

 Indulgence is asked for a presentation that must necessarily be brief, 

 but which can very readily be made more complete. 



The mass of men believe that religion has come out vanquished, 

 humiliated and discredited from a long warfare with triumphant sci- 

 ence. One of the very wisest of 'the martyrs of science' — Boger 

 Bacon — has said 'what the mass of men believe is necessarily false.' 

 The saying is harsh, and Bacon suffered for it. It is more true to 

 say that few popular formulas are so exactly stated that a historian 

 of science can accept them in their crude and current form. The 

 popular doctrine as to the conflict in question undoubtedly needs 

 amending. 



vol. lxv. — 19. 



