230 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



like Minerva from the head of Zeus. With such a 

 basis for interpretation of the books of rehgion how 

 much better fitted is the scholar of to-day for pro- 

 jecting the religion of the future than could be the 

 religious zealot of yesterday, whose faith was limited 

 by a blind tradition harassed by the continuous fear 

 that doubt could damn his soul. 



Freed from the religious dogma of yesterday, and 

 yet eager for some guiding faith, one may feel for a 

 time that science is a false Messiah offering nothing 

 but the material for the spiritual, and hesitant lest 

 adherence to the world of science may lead only to a 

 new bondage. It was the Bishop of Ripon, who, not 

 long ago in a public address, stated that he thought 

 scientists should take a ten year holiday to allow civi- 

 lization to catch up with the radical changes which 

 they have wrought. Such a statement can result only 

 from a complete misunderstanding of the ideals of 

 science, and a lack of trust that an acquisition of new 

 truths can be of increasing benefit to mankind. The 

 last few years of scientific progress have done more 

 to free man from the dreaded monster of a fatalistic 

 philosophy than could have been brought about by any 

 incantations of an ignorant religious seer. Never be- 

 fore has the conception of matter appeared so vapor- 

 ous as now. 



When we come to regard the ultimate building 

 blocks of all material things as the electron, we have 

 gone a long way from the materialistic conception of 

 the nineteenth century towards a spiritual view of 

 the universe not possible in the days of the atomic 

 theory. Now that the conception of the electron as 

 corpuscles composing an Infinitesmal planetary system 



