210 THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE 



words: Immaterial spirits are not material bodies, the 

 ether is not matter; therefore spirits may be ethereal 

 bodies. It does considerable harm when he uses his 

 official position and, as it were, makes the British As- 

 sociation indorse such foolish views. 



Sir Oliver Lodge still believes with the past genera- 

 tion of physicists that science has discovered a path 

 to positive knowledge : " Many scientific men,' 5 he says, 

 " still feel in pugnacious mood towards Theology, be- 

 cause of the exaggerated dogmatism which our prede- 

 cessors encountered and overcame in the past. They 

 had to struggle for freedom to find truth in their own 

 way; but the struggle was a deplorable necessity, and 

 has left some evil effects." It has left evil effects, and 

 the chief of them is Scientific Dogmatism. 



In spite of our self-confidence, we cannot be too 

 sure that hypothetical science has not traversed the 

 same path as dogmatic theology. We have a fairly 

 large and clearly defined body of moral facts. And 

 we have generalized from them rather consistent moral 

 laws. It is inevitable that we shall always speculate as 

 to the causes of these moral facts and laws, and it is 

 probable that most men will continue to fashion an 

 image of their idea of God, more or less anthropo- 

 morphic and concrete. But unfortunately for religion, 

 many will not stop at this point of pure speculation, or 

 the worship of God in spirit and in truth, but they will 

 carve for themselves images in wood and stone, and 



