3 5 8 Science Religion and Reality 



prefer to say, boundless — a distinction not very intelligible except 

 to the mathematicians ; and among all the stars, planets, satellites, 

 and nebulae which are sparsely scattered over its vast empty dis- 

 tances we can hardly imagine that one has been chosen as the abode 

 of the Creator and the site of the heavenly Jerusalem, The 

 belief in a subterranean place of punishment, which has not been 

 disproved by astronomy, seems to have faded away without making 

 any commotion, though I am told (I speak under correction) that 

 the law of the land is still committed to it. If I buy a square mile 

 of ground, I become the proprietor not only of 640 acres of the 

 earth's surface, but of a cube with this base reaching " from heaven 

 to hell." 



There are also difficulties about time, but these are less Serious, 

 because though the Church rejected the belief, held by most of the 

 Greek philosophers, that the universe had no temporal beginning, 

 there is no reason why creation in time should be erected into a 

 dogma. Few would say that this is a vital question. Nor does 

 the doctrine of evolution cause any serious difficulty to Christians 

 who have rejected verbal inspiration. It was a shock to many to 

 hear that the human race has developed out of non-human 

 ancestors ; but the question is only about the methods of creation ; 

 Darwinism has inflicted no injury upon the Christian faith. 



The older problem, however, is still shirked. A short time 

 ago I reviewed a book by a writer whom a popular vote would 

 probably choose as our foremost theologian. I found there a state- 

 ment that Christians are no longer expected to believe in a local 

 heaven above our heads. In reviewing the book I welcomed this 

 rejection of a geographical heaven as significant, coming as it did 

 from a pillar of orthodoxy. To my surprise, the writer complained 

 that I had injured his reputation by suppressing part of his words. 

 Of course, he said, he believed in a local heaven, only not above our 

 heads. And yet he must know that the earth rotates ! Another 

 distinguished theologian, in discussing the ascension of Christ, said 

 that the words " into heaven " might be taken symbolically, but 

 that we must believe that the physical body of Christ was raised to a 

 considerable distance above the ground. 



Nothing is further from my intention than to speak with dis- 

 respect of the religious convictions of any man, least of all of two 

 of my friends. 1 would as soon laugh at a man's wife. But I do 

 ask with all possible earnestness, is this kind of shuffling any longer 



