86 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



touch the question of ultimate causation. What lies 

 back of evolution no one knows. The atheist sees 

 only mechanism and accident without other design or 

 purpose than is found in this mechanism, which is 

 really his deus in machina. The theist sees back of 

 the whole process divine power and plan. The Chris- 

 tian sees a Heavenly Father. Science cannot deal with 

 this mystery; it is a matter of faith alone; but it is 

 plain that Christian faith gives the largest value to 

 human life and the greatest stimulus and comfort. 



Natural Law Not Responsible 

 It was objected to Newton's law of gravity that it 

 drove God out of his universe and put a law in his 

 place. This same objection has been made by many 

 opponents of the laws of development and evolution; 

 and yet a natural law is only a stated, fixed, settled 

 method or process, and surely there is no more evi- 

 dence of divine power in a chaotic and capricious uni- 

 verse than in an orderly and lawful one. On the other 

 hand if the universe were a chaos instead of a cosmos 

 it might be taken to mean that there is no God and 

 that everything is the result of chance. The very 

 existence of order seems to imply some other gov- 

 ernance than chance. 



These same considerations apply to human life and 

 activity as well as to the outside world. There is no 

 good reason for supposing that lawlessness and caprice 

 and chance are any better evidences of wisdom or 

 power or freedom in man and society than in the uni- 

 verse at large. The determinism of science is not pre- 

 determinism or fatalism, and when applied to man it 

 is clear that it does not destroy all freedom and re- 



