316 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



the death-blow to all worship, for what human being 

 would erect an altar to the Unknowable, and how 

 could he engage in any act of worship whatever? 

 What could he think or say or do more than to repeat 

 this short creed expressing his hopeless ignorance? 

 But Mr. Spencer tells us that this creed is the recon- 

 ciliation of religion and science — that by it the essen- 

 tials of both are saved to humanity. 



I need not say that a more universal slaughter of 

 religious could not have been devised. It reminds me 

 of Nast's cartoon showing the reconciliation of the 

 lion and the lamb in fulfillment of the Scripture 

 which says that " the lion and the lamb shall lie 

 down together." The lion was represented in the 

 picture, while the statement was appended that the 

 lamb was inside of the lion. This creed may do for 

 science, but it swallows religion. If reconciliation 

 means death, then it would be best not to be recon- 

 ciled. 



His method of reconciliation is stated as follows: 

 " This method is to compare all opinions of the same 

 genus ; to set aside as more or less discrediting one 

 another those various special and concrete elements 

 in which such opinions disagree; to observe what re- 

 mains after the discordant constituents have been 

 eliminated; and to find for this remaining constituent 

 that abstract expression which holds true throughout 

 its divergent modifications." 



Religion being asked her creed, says, " I believe 

 that there is an inscrutable Power." Science says the 

 same. How can we know that the inscrutable Power 

 is identical in the two cases? I submit that this is 

 no reconciliation, but only an expression of inability 

 to reconcile — an expression of total ignorance. 



The assumption underlying it all is that there is an 

 irreconcilable conflict between Religion and Science, 



