2i8 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



either delusions, or, more frequently, unusual phen- 

 omena for which a cause has not yet been found. 

 The immutability of the fundamental laws of matter 

 and motion, more particularly the grand general- 

 ization of the conservation of energy and the sub- 

 stitution by science of an orderly for a disorderly 

 conception of nature, make it impossible to think 

 of occasional interference by God with this world's 

 affairs. Accordingly the value of petitionary prayer 

 falls to the ground. Revelation and inspiration have 

 resolved themselves into exceptional mental states, 

 and are no longer looked upon as a sort of telepathy 

 between divine and human minds. If we reflect, 

 we see that all these intellectual difficulties in modern 

 theology arise from the advance of scientific know- 

 ledge, which has shown that the older ideas of God 

 were only symbolic, and therefore false when the 

 attempt was made to give real value to them. 



That being, the quagmire in which traditional 

 Christian theology is floundering, it behoves us to 

 discuss the opposite side of the question, and to see 

 whether the very advance of science which has 

 seemed to exert only a destructive influence may not 

 have made it possible to build up new and sounder 

 conceptions of fundamental religious ideas. 



We have already seen that the conception of 

 God always represents man's idea of the powers 

 operating in the universe ; that it has two com- 

 ponents — the outer consisting of these powers so far 



