246 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



We will begin with and treat mainly of the in- 

 tellectual aspect of the problem, the credal side. For 

 one thing, science has more direct concern with it 

 than with the others; for another, more continuous 

 and startling alterations have had to be made in it; 

 and finally, the actual problem is there felt most 

 acutely at the present moment. 



What, then, is the problem? In the terms of our 

 definition of religion, it is in its most general terms 

 as follows: Man has to live his life in a world in 

 which he is confronted with forces and powers other 

 than his own. He is a mere animalcule in compari- 

 son with the totality of these forces, his life a second 

 in comparison with their centuries. By his mental 

 constitution, he of necessity attempts to formulate 

 some intelligible account of the constitution of the 

 world and its relation to himself — or should we rather 

 say in so far as it is in relation to himself? — and so 

 we have a myth, a doctrine, or a creed. 



At the present moment, as we have already seen, 

 there appears to be an irreconcilable conflict between 

 orthodox Christianity and orthodox Natural Science. 

 The one asserts the existence of an omnipotent, om- 

 niscient, personal God — creator, ruler, and refuge. 

 The other, by reducing ever more and more of nat- 

 ural phenomena to what we please to call natural 

 laws — in other words, to orderly processes proceed- 

 ing inevitably from the known constitution and prop- 

 erties of matter — has robbed such a God of ever more 

 and more of his realm and possible power; until 



