ARTHUR S. EDDINGTON 47 



Starting from aether, electrons and other physical 

 machinery we cannot reach conscious man and render 

 count of what is apprehended in his consciousness. 

 Conceivably we might reach a human machine inter- 

 acting by reflexes with its environment; but we can- 

 not reach rational man morally responsible to pursue 

 the truth as to sether and electrons or to religion. 



A belief, not by any means confined to the more 

 dogmatic adherents of religion is that there is a fu- 

 ture non-material existence in store for us. Heaven 

 is nowhere in space, but it is in time. (All the mean- 

 ing of the belief Is bound up with the word future; 

 there is no comfort in an assurance of bliss in some 

 former state of existence.) On the other hand the 

 scientist declares that time and space are a single con- 

 tinuum; and the modern idea of a Heaven in time but 

 not in space is in this respect more at variance with 

 science than the pre-Copernican Idea of a Heaven 

 above our heads. The question I am now putting is 

 not whether the theologian or the scientist is right; 

 but which Is trespassing on the domain of the other. 

 Cannot theology dispose of the destinies of the human 

 soul In a non-material way without trespassing on the 

 realm of science? Cannot science assert Its conclu- 

 sions as to the geometry of the space-time continuum 

 without trespassing on the realm of theology? Ac- 

 cording to the above assertion science and theology 

 can make what mistakes they please provided that 

 they make them in their own territory. They cannot 

 quarrel If they keep to their own realms. But It will 

 require a skilful drawing of the boundary line to frus- 

 trate the development of a conflict here. 



