172 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



tlon of electrons and protons, is not directly verifiable. 

 Yet even this symbolical picture is not an illusion, since 

 it more or less fits the facts. And it cannot be said 

 to be discredited when it has to be modified to corre- 

 spond to fresh discovery. It is a mistaken "para- 

 idealism" which depreciates the scientific Laws of Na- 

 ture because they are obviously man-made, for while 

 they may not be exactly summations of what actually 

 takes place, they bear a more or less close approxima- 

 tion to reality, since they can be trusted to In practice 

 and used as a basis for prediction. 



All these prolegomena have seemed necessary in 

 order to show in proper perspective the changes in our 

 thoughts of God that seem to be called for by the ad- 

 vances of science, and are indeed more or less rapidly 

 coming about. It will be understood, of course, that 

 other changes are in progress under the influence of a 

 deeper understanding of history, and of a modernised 

 critical philosophy, and through a fresh appreciation 

 of the Gospel of Christ, to which so many transfigura- 

 tions have been due. 



Negative Changes 



(a) The advance of science discloses chains of effi- 

 cient causes, and the First Cause Is pushed further and 

 further back. Thus our thoughts of God become less 

 anthropomorphic. Nature is a system greater than 

 our greatest thoughts of it, and this must be even more 

 true of our thoughts of God. We know that purpose 

 for one man is a lofty and abstract idea, while for 

 another it may be little more than a commonplace and 

 concrete picture coloured with emotion. To a higher 

 animal purpose may be often no more than a revived 



