xl INTRODUCTION 



So we see leading scientists centering their efforts 

 on a solution of the puzzle of the ages: the creative 

 force back of phenomena, and the destiny of man's 

 spirit. 



Alexander Pope said once, "The undevout astrono- 

 mer is mad." He might have extended his discerning 

 comment to the fields of mathematics, biology, physics, 

 chemistry, psychology and psychics. No man, familiar 

 daily with the astonishing demonstration of unity, pur- 

 pose, activities, combinations of the wonders of crea- 

 tion, as men working in these fields must be, could fail 

 to be profoundly reverent before the majesty and glory 

 of it all. Men engaged in research, from Copernicus 

 and Newton through Darwin, Spencer and Huxley, 

 and on to our own day, have been men of deep religious 

 feeling. They were distinctly non-conformists. But 

 that did not mean they lacked the profound religious 

 urge. We might put it this way: they worked in the 

 spirit of science. 



In every epoch of the evolution of scientific thought, 

 orthodox religion has been left rather far in the rear. 

 This fact is as true to-day as it was when the Inquisi- 

 tion compelled Galileo, at the age of seventy, after he 

 had made the richest contribution to progress of any 

 man of his time, to recite an incantation. In addition 

 he was sentenced to prison, and obliged to repeat, by 

 way of penance, the seven penitential psalms daily for 

 three years. Yet the ecclesiastical council which sen- 

 tenced him and silenced him, triumphant enough in its 

 own day, in ours has been mercilessly exposed and ridi- 

 culed; while Galileo is thought of as the really religious 



