Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, September 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, September 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
The question seems a reasonable one to ask, To what authority shall we
look for knowledge and interpretation of these spiritual truths which
are not accessible by scientific study? How shall we know that they
are truths at all? I am aware that here the testimony of Christian
conscientiousness is sometimes held to be the court of last resort,
which I interpret to mean that if one intuitively reaches the
conclusion that something is true it is true, the most positive
evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Certainly, no other fact is
better established in all human history than the truth of witchcraft,
if we admit the potency of this authority. If we reject this, must we
not then fall back upon ecclesiastical infallibility as the final
interpreter of truth? And this the essayist, in his paper, declines to
argue.
Now, can there be any such thing as scientific investigation within
such prescribed limitations? Or scientific study of the Bible itself
which excludes from its province the so-called spiritual revelations
which it contains? One might naturally think that the primary purpose
of all the critical study of the books, authors, and structure of the
Bible was to learn just what these distinct truths it teaches are. But
what bearing can this study have upon the question, being but an
intellectual process with which the essential truths are disconnected,
which only come by revelation?
Higher criticism can not hold permanently such an untenable position.
It must either go backward to an infallible book, or an infallible
interpretation of it by authority, or it must go forward to the
consideration of the Bible as a collection of books of ancient
literature, to be examined without restrictions. The truths which it
contains are to be ascertained by "apprehending intellectually" and
"reasoning logically," in the same manner as with other books written
by religious leaders in ancient times. Any halting between these two
positions is only for temporary rest. No permanent foothold can ever
be gained on such a foundation of quicksand. An impassable dead line
in biblical study is indicative of the theological and not the
scientific method.
LEWIS DAYTON BURDICK.
MCDONOUGH, N. Y.
A CORRECTION.
_Editor Popular Science Monthly_:
SIR: A correspondent, Mr. C. Wood Davis, of Peotone, Kansas, appears
to think it his duty to prove that we can not produce wheat enough in
this country to meet our own future demands, and apparently regards it
as a personal matter when any one contests this position. He also
thinks he has found a small error in long division in the last article
which you printed from me on this question which I can not find, but
which if found and corrected would have no influence on the general
argument.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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