Every difference of tension demands a something that has established this difference. Where there is a swinging pendulum it must originally have received a push. If, however, the entire universe is one single mass of differences in tension, the impelling force can only lie outside the universe. In other words: this force could only have been the finger of a god. He it was, the Father-god, who put all his capital of force into this universe, upon which capital everything now feeds and will continue to feed until at length all is consumed, and the great world-death comes which “He” alone again can bid depart in communicating a fresh impulsion of motion--_if He should happen to feel so disposed_. Of course science does not say, “Energy disappears.” Instead she says, “Energy only becomes inert; _as such_, however, remains conserved.” This, however, is about as sensible as if one should say, “Heat does not disappear, it only becomes cold; _as such_, however, it remains conserved”--an absurdity rightly denounced by thinking minds among physicists, such as E. Mach, for example. And the conclusion of the whole matter? The colossal achievements of science upon which is erected her cosmogony of energetics, have served no other purpose but to look after those interests of faith which faith itself dare not look after if it wishes to retain its vitality. In her audacious attempt to make light of the “imperceptible in itself,” the god-idea, as a mere rudiment of atavism, science has made a pitiable shipwreck. By such an attempt she only shows that she herself is an apostate from the god-idea; and to be honourable, nothing is left her but to return as contrite vassal to the ancient and sovereign race of those that are “of Jehovah.” Should she, however, attempt to interpret the play of world-events not as a fall, but try instead to interpolate forces, then of necessity she must resort to the hypothesis of central forces; and, as above she plays into the hands of the extra-cosmic deity of monotheism, so here she plays into the hands of the intra-cosmic deity of pantheism; for this central force, if really believed in and not a mere working hypothesis, would be nothing else but the world-spirit of pantheism translated into physical terms.