How difficult it is to go back in imagination to the days before men
grasped the meaning of natural law! We take gravitation for granted
but, when Newton first proclaimed its law, the artillery of orthodox
pulpits was leveled against him in angry consternation. Said one
preacher, Newton "took from God that direct action on his works so
constantly ascribed to him in Scripture and transferred it to material
mechanism" and he "substituted gravitation for Providence." [1] That
preacher saw truly that the discovery of natural law was going to make
a profound difference to religion. For ages men had been accustomed to
look for the revelation of supernatural power in realms where they did
not know the laws. And as men were tempted to look for the presence of
God in realms where they did not know the laws, so in those realms they
trusted God to do for them what they did not know how to do for
themselves.
Then men began discovering natural laws, and every time they laid their
hands on a new natural law they laid their hands on a new law-abiding
force and began doing for themselves things of which their fathers had
never dreamed. Stories of old-time miracles are overpassed in our
modern days. Did Aladdin once rub a magic lamp and build a palace?
To-day, knowledge of engineering laws enables us to achieve results
that would put Aladdin quite to shame. He never dreamed a Woolworth
Tower. Did the Israelites once cross the Red Sea dry-shod? One thing,
however, they never would have hoped to do: to cross under and over the
Hudson River day after day in multitudes, dry-shod. Did an axe-head
float once when Elisha threw a stick into the water? But something no
Elisha ever dreamed of seeing we see continually: iron ships navigating
the ocean as though it were their natural element. Did Joshua once
prolong the day for battle by the staying of the sun? Yet Joshua could
never have conceived an habitual lighting of the city's homes and
streets until by night they are more brilliant than by day. Did
Jericho's walls once fall at the united shout of a besieging people?
Those childlike besiegers, however, never dreamed of guns that could
blast Jerichos to pieces from seventy miles away. Huxley was right
when he said that our highly developed sciences have given us a command
over the course of non-human nature greater than that once attributed
to the magicians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account