SIR J. ARTHUR THOMSON 169 



in terms of the Lowest Common Denominators avail- 

 able, while Theology and the intellectual activities of 

 Religion aim at some transcendental interpretation, in 

 which the highest concept is that of a Supreme Spir- 

 itual Reality — God. Between the scientific description 

 and the religious interpretation there should be no an- 

 tithesis, for they belong to different universes of dis- 

 course, yet they must be consistent, for we cannot tol- 

 erate idea-tight compartments in our minds. Thus 

 there arise such questions as this article raises: how 

 our theological or religious ideas must undergo some 

 modification as science advances. This is surely as it 

 should be if the world is in any sense God's handi- 

 work. 



Religious and Scientific Ideas 

 Along various paths, some of pain and others of 

 joy, some of strenuous effort and others of open- 

 heartedness, men have had glimpses of God, as who 

 should say. Sometimes from the heights and depths 

 of his ethical life, sometimes from the book of his- 

 tory, at one time from the lives of prophets, priests, 

 and kings, or again in the example of noble women, 

 there has come to man some vision of a spiritual 

 reality behind all mundane happenings. Even if he 

 cannot pretend to understand the Divine Purpose, 

 there is steadying in the belief that some Purpose 

 there is. 



From the history of religions it is plain that reli- 

 gious activity may be intellectual, as in a thought-out 

 theodicy, or emotional, as in sacred music, or prac- 

 tical, as in offering propitiation or doing penance; and 

 that all forms have this in common that they make an 



