SCIENCE AND RELIGION 193 



THE AIM OF SCIENCE AND THE ATTITUDE OF 

 RELIGION. As we have already seen, the aim 

 of Science is to discover the general laws of what 

 goes on, to formulate the sequences in the simplest 

 possible terms, terms which are either the im- 

 mediate data of experience or verifiably derived 

 from these. It has a definite aim, which is to 

 describe things as they are and as they have been, 

 and to discover the laws of all processes; it has 

 definite methods of observation and experiment; 

 it has its own "universe of discourse" which does 

 not include transcendental concepts and offers no 

 ultimate explanations. 



We cannot define Religion, but we use the 

 word to include all recognition whether practi- 

 cal, emotional, or intellectual of an independent 

 spiritual reality. It is evidently something alto- 

 gether different from Science; it is beyond the 

 high tide-mark of everyday emotion and it is oil 

 the far side of intellectual curiosity. 



JR^digip^impliea a Tealiaatien^of^a higher order 

 of things than those of sense-experience, arioTit 

 has the usual three sides of feeling, intellectual 

 conviction, and activity. "Religion," said Prof. 

 James, "has meant many things in human history. 

 ... I use the word in the supernaturalist sense, 

 as declaring that the so-called order of nature, 

 which constitutes this world's experience, is only 

 one portion of the total universe, and that there 



