CHAPTER II 



RATIONALISTIC VIEWS OF SCIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE 



Modern Rationalists not only take their name from 

 Reason, but exalt it as almost omnipotent, at least as far 

 as the material world is concerned. Thus Mr. C. T. 

 Gorham says : " Knowledge ends with the material pheno- 

 mena ; beyond, conjecture holds the field, and explana- 

 tion becomes guesswork ".^ In fact, whatever cannot 

 have a rational explanation by observation and experi- 

 ment is not to be accepted as a scientific truth according 

 to him and other Rationalists. 



Science and reason doubtless might be infallible, if 

 only we were always quite sure of our facts ; for Facts are 

 Truth ; but science, as representing co-ordinated human 

 knowledge, is always progressive. Truth is only ulti- 

 mately secured, not only by observation and experiment 

 with verification, to which these authors seem to limit us, 

 but by inductive evidence coupled with a continual eli- 

 mination of unsupported deductions, a priori assumptions 

 and errors. 



The following will supply the reader with some of 

 the anonymous author's descriptions of science occurring 

 in Mr. Balfour's Apologetics. 



( I ) " Science assumes the Universality of the Law of 

 Causation," 



1 Faith, its Freaks and Follies, p. 44. This author completely fuses 

 " Faith " " belief " and " credulity ". 



(221) 



