Reconciliation of science and religion / by Alexander Winchell.

  • Alexander Winchell
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reconciliation of science and religion / by Alexander Winchell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/420 page 21
    be good. The whole tenor and purport of Nature's plans teaches that the parts are adjusted for the mutual benefit of each other. In the next place, it can not be illusory. There is not an instance in nature of the existence of one correlate and the non-existence of its fellow. The echo implies the real voice. Keligious longings imply the reality of their object, as the power of vision implies things visible. Not even are the brutal instincts deceptive. Gratification answers to desire. The insect care which arranges food for offspring still in the egg, and only to be developed months after the death of the moth- er which arranges it, is no more exempt from deception than humanity's longing for its God, or the individual's cry for di- vine help. Once establish the innate character of a sentiment, a belief, or intuition, and we trace in it a divine purpose, a di- vine utterance. But I dismiss also the discussion of this theme. I have reached convictions, after much study; and my immovable be- lief has been a source of consolation and calm. I would ear- nestly commend to every thinker the study of the evidence in support of the existence and authority of innate sentiments, be- liefs, and intuitions. _ I must pass over, similarly, all discussion of the generaliza- tions mduced from the religions phenomena of our race. The foUowmg are the grand facts common to the religious faiths of the world: 1. A Supreme Being, the Author of all things in existence 2. A Eevelation of the Supreme Being, either in sensible thmgs or m the intelligence of inspired men. _ 3 A System of Worship-which is either instinctive and aimless, or mtended to propitiate the Deity, and win happiness for the worshiper. This worship consists in the „plif[i^g of devout_ thoughts, sacrifices, feasts, fasts, prostrations, genuflec-• tions, singing, dancing, crossing, and a great number of other practices suited to the intellectual condition of the worshiper
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3