118 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



The scientific spirit and the religious spirit both 

 have their parts to play in this experiment. If re- 

 ligion will but abandon its claims to fixity and certi- 

 tude (as many liberal churchmen are already doing), 

 then it can see in the pursuit of truth something essen- 

 tially sacred, and science itself will come to have its 

 religious aspect. If science will remember that it, as 

 science, can lay no claim to set up values, it will allow 

 due weight to the religious spirit. 



At the moment, however, a radical difference of 

 outlook obtains as between change in science and 

 change in religion. An alteration in scientific outlook 

 — for instance the supersession of pure Newtonian 

 mechanics by relativity — is generally looked on as a 

 victory for science. But an alteration in religious out- 

 look — for instance, the abandonment of belief in the 

 literal truth of the account of Creation in Genesis — 

 is usually looked on as in some way a defeat for re- 

 ligion. Yet, either both are defeats or both are vic- 

 tories — not for particular activities such as religion 

 or science, but for the spirit of man. In the past, re- 

 ligion has usually been slowly or grudgingly forced to 

 admit new scientific Ideas. 



If it will but accept the most vivifying of all the 

 scientific Ideas of the past century, — that of the ca- 

 pacity of life. Including human life and institutions, 

 including religion itself, for progressive development, 

 — the conflict between science and religion will be 

 over, and both can join hands In advancing the great 

 experiment of man, of ensuring that men shall have 

 life, and have it more abundantly. 



