The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

104 SCIENCE AND RELIGION.transcends itself; the supernatural is the keyto the natuial; Nature is a creation to be attributedto an Intelligent First Cause.Are science and religion here in harmonyin the form and measure compatible in thecircumstances ? This qualified and guardedform of the question is obviously required,for religious thought does not profess to bescientific, or in any sense authoritative as tothe phenomena of nature, that is, as to thefacts which observation alone can ascertain,or as to the immediate causes by which thesefacts are to be explained. On the other hand,science is exclusively a knowledge of nature,consisting of methodized observations concerningdistinct orders of facts, and rationalinferences founded upon these. It can notin true sense be concerned with the supernatural,but can only present conclusions asto the order and processes of nature, whichby subsequent and independent exercise ofour intelligence may be contemplated in theirrelation to the conception of the supernatural,as Intelligent First Cause. This subsequentexercise of thought, whether criticalor constructive, is more properly the taskof philosophy, in prosecution of .those re-