38 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



course "incurably religious." Why? Because every 

 one who reflects at all must have conceptions about 

 the world which go beyond the field of science, that 

 is, beyond the present range of intellectual knowledge. 

 As soon as we get beyond that range we are in the 

 field that belongs to religion, and no one knows better 

 than the man who works in science how soon we get 

 beyond the boundaries of the known. These bound- 

 aries are continually changing, and so the conceptions 

 that must start from them and have their footings in 

 them are likewise of necessity changing. That is, re- 

 ligion is changing now, because of the interplay of 

 science upon it, precisely as it has been changing in 

 the past, and especially during the past century. 



There is a religion — one which keeps its mind con- 

 tinually open to new truth, which realizes that religion 

 itself has continually undergone an evolution, that as 

 our religious conceptions have changed in the past so 

 they may be expected to change in the future; that 

 eternal truth has been discovered in the past, that it 

 is being discovered now, and will continue to be dis- 

 covered. That kind of religion adapts itself to a 

 growing, developing world. 



Physics has recently learned its lesson; and it has 

 something to teach both philosophy and religion, 

 namely, the lesson of not taking itself too seriously, 

 not imagining that the human mind yet understands, 

 or has made more than the barest beginning toward 

 understanding the universe. To-day physics is much 

 more open-minded, much less dogmatic, much less dis- 

 posed to make all-inclusive generalizations, and to 

 imagine that it is dealing with ultimate realities, than 



