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A WKKKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCll^NCL. 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Salnre trusts the mind' which builds for aye." — Wordsworth. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1920. 



Editorial and Publishittg Offices : 



MACMILLAN &• CO., LTD.. 



ST MARTIN'S STREET LONDON, W.C.2. 



Adveriisements and business letters should be 

 addressed to the Publishers. 



Editorial conununications to the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS. LONDON. 

 Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. 



The Unity of Science and Religion. 



THK Cardiff mixting of the British Association 

 will be marked with a red stone in the road 

 progress because of two noteworthy events. 

 One was the suggestion of the president, Prof. 

 W. A. Herdman, eagerly taken up by members of 

 the Association, that the time had come for a new 

 Challenger expedition for the exploration of the 

 oceans, and another was the enlightened sermon, 

 hichwe print in full elsewhere, delivered by Canon 

 1.. W. Barnes, a distinguished mathematician who 

 i^ both a fellow of the Royal Society and a Canon 

 Westminster. We do not hesitate to say that 

 rot for a long time has such a conciliatory atti- 

 tude been presented to men of science by a leader 

 the Church as is represented by Canon Barnes's 

 .iiUlress. The position taken up in it is one upon 

 which the two standards of scienc^ and religion 

 n be placed side by side to di.splay to the world 

 iiitir unity of purpose. For Science and Religion 

 are twin sisters, each studying her own sacred 

 lM)ok of (jod and building a structure which re- 

 NO. 2653, VOL. 106] 



mains sure only when established upon the founda- 

 tion of truth. 



The day of bitter controversy between dogmatic 

 theology and often no less dogmatic science is, 

 we hope and believe, past and gone, and no one 

 would wish to recall it. We certainly have no 

 intention of opening a discussion in our columns 

 upon Biblical interpretation or the bearing of 

 scientific discovery upon it. The complete story 

 of the struggle through which the present position 

 has been gained is told by Dr. A. W. White in 

 his " History of the \\'arfare of Science with 

 Theology in Christendom," published last year. 

 It is difficult now to realise what was done to 

 pour contempt upon Darwin's works and dis- 

 credit him and his followers bv theologians of all 

 types; but towards the end ol the conflict it be- 

 came clear that leaders in all Churches were lie- 

 ginning to understand that men could be 

 Christians and at the same time Darwinians, and 

 in latter days they have not only relinquished 

 the struggle against science, but have also frankly 

 shown their willingness to make an alliance with it. 



Canon J. M. Wilson, another distinguished 

 mathematician who has also the highest creden- 

 tials to represent tin- \l<\\s of thoughtful Church- 

 men, referred to this change of attitude in an 

 article contributed to our Jubilee issue in 

 November last. He then wrote: "InscnsiWy a 

 change has occurred which is not easy to define. 

 Perhaps it may l>e described broadly as the dis- 

 covery by the .scientific world that the sphere of 

 religion is not inherently anti-rational ; that faith, 

 like knowledge, rests ultimately on experience ; 

 that .science has its sphere in the world of matter 

 leading up to forces of unknown origin and 

 nature; and that faith has its sphere in a world 

 of personality leading up to a similarly unknown 



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