234 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



of an enlarged God to keep pace with the expanding 

 universe of astronomy has undoubtedly proved some- 

 what disconcerting to the individuahzed conception 

 of Deity made popular through the evangelical tradi- 

 tions of the church which for generations has empha- 

 sized the Individualized relationship with a Heavenly 

 Father whose solicitation for the human soul was con- 

 summated in the doctrine of the atonement. One may 

 well ask, however, if the conception of an individual 

 relationship of Deity is at all inconsistent with the 

 conception of man as a unit of a greater intelligence 

 as above depicted. Does not the newer conception 

 of man as an element of the universe in both mind and 

 body still make for the basis of an individualized re- 

 lationship with the Deity, although one must admit on 

 a more cosmopolitan scale than the dogmatic exclu- 

 siveness of yesterday's faith would allow? 



Entertaining the question of the existence of life on 

 other planets and in other systems of the universe than 

 our own makes any adherence to a restricted philos- 

 ophy of atonement quite untenable. Whatever one's 

 view may be upon such items in the creed of the church 

 as have been regarded as more or less fundamental, 

 one must make room for a new chapter on the evolu- 

 tion of a religion which will be universe-wide in its 

 scope. 



As science has changed the concept of Deity, com- 

 mon In the sacred books and the more primitive con- 

 ceptions of atonement, science has unquestionably 

 altered one's outlook on the doctrine of immortality. 

 The age old desire for a future existence probably 

 has biological foundations in the defense mechanism 



