48 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



The philosophic trend of modern scientific thought 

 differs markedly from the views of thirty years ago. 

 Can we guarantee that the next thirty years will not 

 see another revolution, perhaps even a complete reac- 

 tion? We may certainly expect great changes, and by 

 that time many things will appear in a new aspect. 

 That Is one of the difficulties in the relations of science 

 and philosophy: that Is why the scientist as a rule 

 pays so little heed to the philosophical implication of 

 his own discoveries. By dogged endeavor he Is slowly 

 and torturously advancing to purer and purer truth; 

 but his Ideas seem to zigzag In a manner most discon- 

 certing to the onlooker. Scientific discovery is like the 

 fitting together of the pieces of a great jig-saw puzzle; 

 a revolution of science does not mean that the pieces 

 already arranged and Interlocked have to be dispersed. 

 It means that In fitting on fresh pieces we have had 

 to revise our Impression of what the puzzle-picture is 

 going to be like. 



One day you ask the scientist how he Is getting on. 

 He replies, "Finely. I have very nearly finished this 

 piece of blue sky." Another day you ask how the sky 

 is progressing and are told, "I have added a lot more, 

 but It was sea, not sky; there Is a boat floating on the 

 top of It." Perhaps next time it will have turned out 

 to be a parasol upside down; but our friend Is still 

 enthusiastically delighted with the progress he is mak- 

 ing. The scientist has his guesses as to how the fin- 

 ished picture will work out; he depends largely on 

 these in his search for other pieces to fit; but his 

 guesses are modified from time to time by unexpected 

 developments as the fitting proceeds. 



These Involutions of thought as to the final picture 



