HARLAN T. STETSON 225 



is helpless in his attempt to conceive adequately of its 

 proportions. 



One hears much these days of the lack of conflict 

 between science and religion, that these feats of in- 

 tellectual effort represent entirely distinct categories 

 and that a conflict between true science and true re- 

 ligion is, therefore, quite impossible. While there may 

 be metaphysical grounds for such conclusions, to the 

 man of the street such sophistry may prove more 

 confusing than helpful, supposing he is trying to build 

 for himself some sort of a philosophy of religion which 

 will at least be consistent with the physical universe 

 of which he himself is a part. To be sure, there are 

 those who have no desire or perhaps capacity to exert 

 themselves mentally, whose religion must forever be 

 no more than an adherence to an ecclesiastical regime, 

 and whose science is represented by its inventions 

 rather than by its method of thought. But to such 

 this volume is not addressed. 



One cannot survey the vast body of knowledge 

 which is the heritage of the twentieth century with- 

 out realizing the indelible imprints left by the think- 

 ing of yesterday, whether one reflects upon the field 

 of science or upon religion. In examining the prog- 

 ress of scientific thought, however, one becomes aware 

 of the characteristics of its method which marks the 

 scientific mind per se more astutely alert to a changing 

 prospective than has been wont in the category of 

 religion. Since the principal religions of the world 

 have grown up about certain traditions and certain 

 personalities, holiness may have been mistaken for 



