494 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



maintains that " the recent cry of ' the 

 Conflict of Eeligion and Science ' is fal- 

 lacious and mischievous to the interests 

 of science and religion, and would be 

 most mournful if we did not believe 

 that, in the very nature of things, it 

 must be ephemeral. Its genesis is to be 

 traced to the weak foolishness of some 

 professors of religion, and to the weak 

 wickedness of some professors of sci- 

 ence." 



On the contrary, we consider this 

 conflict to be natural and inevitable, to 

 be wholesome rather than mischievous ; 

 and having convulsed the world for 

 centuries, and being still rife, with lit- 

 tle prospect of speedy adjustment, we 

 hardly see how it can be regarded as 

 '' ephemeral." Nor can it be much de- 

 pendent upon the attributes here as- 

 signed to some of the controversialists. 

 If the said professors of religion were 

 brayed in a mortar until all their folly 

 departed from them, and the said pro- 

 fessors of science were all regenerated, 

 the relations of the subjects would still 

 give rise to hostility, and raise up new 

 antagonists. No truce among the lead- 

 ers can affect the deeper issues as viewed 

 by the general mind. Something ought 

 to be learned from experience, and that 

 there has been a long and fierce antag- 

 onism between what has passed under 

 the name of religion, and what has 

 passed under the name of science, is 

 sufliciently shown from the evidence 

 furnished by President White. That 

 the antagonism continues, is not because 

 of the wrong-headedness of a few par- 

 tisans who are bent upon stirring up 

 strife, but because science is driving on 

 with its researches, regardless of any 

 thing but the new truth it aims to reach, 

 while the religious world is full of anx- 

 iety and dread about what is going to 

 happen as a consequence of this uncon- 

 trollable movement. Those who think 

 the existing phase of the alleged conflict 

 illusive are requested simply to consider 

 the attitude of mind of the great mass 

 of devout and sincerely religious people 



toward the more advanced scientific 

 conclusions and scientific men of the 

 present day. It is no test of the matter 

 to determine how the great body of re- 

 ligious people now regard the science 

 established in former times. The re- 

 ligious liberality of each age is put upon 

 its trial by the questions arising in each 

 age. In our own time biology is the 

 branch of science that is most progres- 

 sive and occupies the attention of, per- 

 haps, the largest number of investiga- 

 tors who are busy inquiring about the 

 origin of life, the antiquity of man, cere- 

 bral psychology, the laws of force mani- 

 fested in living beings, and the evolu- 

 tion of organic forms in the course of 

 Nature. How are such inquiries re- 

 garded by the multitude of devoutly 

 rehgious people? Are they not con- 

 sidered " dangerous ? " Are they not 

 viewed by. this class exactly as the new 

 doctrines in astronomy and geology 

 were viewed by the same class in for- 

 mer times, that is, as hostile to faith 

 and subversive of religion ? Is there no 

 conflict here? Are the brand of "ma- 

 terialism " which is put upon biological 

 study in our times, and the charge that 

 a materialistic science is aiming to cut 

 up religion by the roots, indicative of 

 harmony between these parties ? Sci- 

 ence must go on, and, if her results 

 thus far are bad, there is no prospect 

 that they will be better in the future. 

 There can be only one basis of substan- 

 tial peace, and that is the entire indif- 

 ference of religious people, as such, to the 

 results of scientific inquiry. This they 

 cannot attain until far better instruct- 

 ed than at present ; and we apprehend 

 that it will take very considerable time 

 to reach that desirable consummation. 



J^D OF THE PENIKESE SCHOOL. 



The proposition made three or four 

 years ago, and due, as we understood, 

 to Prof. Shaler, to establish a School 

 of Natural History at Nantucket for the 

 benefit of the teachers of the country, 



