M i >I > K UN' ISM AND TKADITIOXAL C H K 1ST I A X IT Y. 



73 



From this we see that Air. Thompson is not pre parcel to give 

 up the supernatural altogether. He thinks that science and 

 supernaturalism can survive side by side, but only on the 

 condition that the belief in miracles is rejected. The super- 

 natural with him belongs to the spiritual realm, and no 

 external signs of it are to he looked for. All the signs 

 (arffjueia), wonders (repara^, powers (Swa/mecs), mentioned in 

 the New Testament, are instances of " suggestion," " faith- 

 healing," or misrepresentations of natural events. It would 

 seem, therefore, that Mr. Thompson is prepared, at the demand 

 of the mechanistic theory of the universe, to give up all the 

 New Testament miracles, hut yet is not willing to accept its 

 further demand that consciousness (which is the sphere of the 

 spiritual) is nothing more than a hy-product of physical 

 activities, a by-product exercising no influence on the world's 

 history. 



it ht j were to admit that consciousness could alter the move- 

 ment of one molecule of matter, his argument against miracles 

 would fail. For it is on the assumption that external events 

 are linked together hy an iron chain of necessity that miracles 

 are excluded from nature. Once admit that consciousness, 

 including will, is operative on the physical world, and miracles 

 stand on quite another footing. Clerk-Maxwell's hypothesis of 

 " sorting demons," and Sir Oliver's " timing " and other move- 

 ments, do not contravene the theory of the conservation of 

 energy, and yet they may be directive of the course of events. 



Sir Oliver Lodge, in his address as President of the British 

 Association in 1913, says: "To explain the psychical in terms 

 of the physical is impossible." " How life exerts guidance over 

 chemical and physical forces " is puzzling, but the fact " admits 

 of no doubt." " The universe is a larger thing than we have 

 any conception of, and no one method of search will exhaust its 

 treasures. ' 



New Light ox " Laws " of Nature. 



Scientific thinkers are beginning to realize that the universe 

 is something greater than our concept of it. The theory of 

 relativity, which has the support of many eminent men of 

 science, gives us quite another outlook on nature. In the 

 words of Professor Carmichael (The Theory of Relativity, New- 

 York, 1913) : " It is a fresh analysis of the foundations of 

 physical science." It asks the question, " In what respect are 

 our enunciated laws of nature relative to us who investigate 



