Evolution; Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy and religion
How to find this something—how to reconcile them, thus becomes the
problem which we should perseveringly try to solve. Not to reconcile
them in any makeshift way—not to find one of those compromises we hear
from time to time proposed, which their proposers must secretly feel are
artificial and temporary; but to arrive at the terms of a real and
permanent peace between them. The thing we have to seek out, is that
ultimate truth which both will avow with absolute sincerity—with not the
remotest mental reservation. There shall be no concession—no yielding on
either side of something that will by and by be reasserted; but the
common ground on which they meet shall be one which each will maintain
for itself. We have to discover some fundamental verity which Religion
will assert, with all possible emphasis, in the absence of Science; and
which Science, with all possible emphasis, will assert in the absence of
Religion—some fundamental verity in the defence of which each will find
the other its ally.
Or, changing the point of view, our aim must be to co-ordinate the
seemingly opposed convictions which Religion and Science embody. From
the coalescence of antagonist ideas, each containing its portion of
truth, there always arises a higher development. As in Geology when the
igneous and aqueous hypotheses were united, a rapid advance took place;
as in Biology we are beginning to progress through the fusion of the
doctrine of types with the doctrine of adaptations; as in Psychology the
arrested growth recommences now that the disciples of Kant and those of
Locke have both their views recognized in the theory that organized
experiences produce forms of thought; as in Sociology, now that it is
beginning to assume a positive character, we find a recognition of both
the party of progress and the party of order, as each holding a truth
which forms a needful complement to that held by the other; so must it
be on a grander scale with Religion and Science. Here too we must look
for a conception which combines the conclusions of both; and here too we
may expect important results from their combination. To understand how
Science and Religion express opposite sides of the same fact—the one its
near or visible side, and the other its remote or invisible side—this it
is which we must attempt; and to achieve this must profoundly modify our
general Theory of Things.
Already in the foregoing pages the method of seeking such a
reconciliation has been vaguely foreshadowed. Before proceeding further,
however, it will be well to treat the question of method more
definitely. To find that truth in which Religion and Science coalesce,
we must know in what direction to look for it, and what kind of truth it
is likely to be.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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