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

CONDITIONS OF THE INQUIRY. 21to overlook the lesson they convey, all themore that both sides admit reasonable groundfor regret. There has been, on the one hand,too great readiness in charging an atheisticconclusion as the logical result of scientifictheory; and, on the other, too hasty an assumptionthat newly recognized facts mustprove damaging to Christian faith. Detailedillustration would be in every sense undesirablehere, but outstaildii~g examples will readilyoccur. Take the theory of the Developmentof Species by Natural Selection, towhich detailed reference will be made hereafter,which has a great multitude of factsto favor it, and at the same time a mass offacts presenting most serious logical difficulties;it is obvious that even if this theorywere accepted in the form in which it is atpresent propounded, not only would the rationalbasis for belief in the Divine existericeand government not be affected by it, but thedenialid on a Sovereign Iiitelligence would beintensified. The contrast in the form of thegeneral question may be represented thus: inthe one case, to account for the origin of va-ried forn~s of life entirely distinct and independent;in the other, to accoui~t for an ori-