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.

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    the substitution of physical causation for her supposed divinity, she feels that divinity certainly exists, and that divinity must be revealed in the world. Nor does science seek to strike a blow at this central assurance. Keen as its vision may be, uncom- promising as its methods are, its aim is truth; and as no proof has been found of the unreality of the divine, whose image is mirrored in the universal consciousness, the voice of science has never been heard disputing its dominion in the Avorld. On the contrary, philosophy, which builds upon the data disclosed by science, has always started out with the divine existence as its postulate, and has expended its loftiest efforts in seeking for the mode of that existence, and the nature of its relations to man and the world. In saying this, I hold science and philosophy irresponsible for the indiscretions of some of their devotees. The great ca- lamities of the world have proceeded from the passion or mis- judgment of individuals. It must be admitted that individuals from the ranks of science and philosophy, with the perversity and blindness of madmen, have, at intervals, dared to ignore the divinity whose voice, even in their own hearts, they could not silence, and have attempted to rob religious faith complete- ly of its object. Exasperated by the faithful lash of conscience, the wicked heart has sometimes driven the intellect to make the rash and fatal declaration that there is no God, no future, no moral tribunal; but the offended and indignant conscience of the nations has rung out its withering reprobation of the blasphemy, and the balance of rights has been momentarily restored. Religious faith, I have said, hallows and sanctifies all that it can appropriate. This is its nature; this is its excellence. Its essential attitude is to assume the sacredness of divinity cloth- ing every object, every event, every established belief. So far as concerns religious faith in its pure simplicity, every thing exists in direct relation to God. There is no system but relig-
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