Scientific Evolution. 137 



Theology occupies itself with an asserted noumenal 

 universe, inaccessible to our senses, the collocation of 

 causes in such an invisible world, together with the laws 

 of their action in short, with the relations of spiritual 

 entities from God down to the human soul. 



Such being the case the two domains being so distinct 

 it seems difficult to conceive how any development of 

 physical science can possibly conflict with natural 

 theology, and yet the fact is patent that it is very 

 often supposed to do so. It is true, of course, that 

 Christian theology does make a limited number of 

 assertions with respect to certain facts (such, e.g., as those 

 contained in the Church's creed), which were at one 

 time subjects of sensible experience. It is manifest, 

 therefore, that if science, e.g., history, could demonstrate 

 any one of these assertions to be false, such science 

 must be not merely hostile but deadly in its action 

 on Christianity. No writer, however, as yet has even 

 claimed to have established a demonstration of the kind. 

 Indeed, all competent minds have recognised the fact 

 that physical science, apart from a priori philosophical 

 conceptions, must be alike incapable of disproving them 

 or of establishing their impossibility. Nevertheless, there 

 are always more or less widely diffused among Christians 

 various " pious opinions " (as they are termed), which 



and by bestowing the new name " metempirics " on that which has 

 been hitherto universally called " metaphysics." 



