RELIGION AND NATURAL SCIENCE


In the previous chapter we have noticed how man is able to reach an
over-world which will grant him a new kind of reality over against the
whole remaining domain of existence. But the evidence hitherto brought
forth has been that of the nature of man himself. We have in this
chapter to inquire whether there is a warrant for such a conclusion
within the realm of natural science. Does science give any hint of the
presence of spiritual life anywhere in the universe? Eucken answers
distinctly in the affirmative.[13]

The conclusions of natural science have, in modern times, come into
direct conflict with religion. Traditional religion has grown up on a
view of the universe which has been [p.58] utterly discarded by modern
knowledge. Religious leaders have often had to be dragged to see the
truth of this statement, and, as Eucken points out, many are still far
from realising the seriousness of the cleft between knowledge and
religion. The theology of the Middle Ages has not yet disappeared,
although fortunately there are some signs of a great reconstruction
going on in our midst. Fortunately, this naive view of the universe is a
theology and not a religion; but doubtless even the religion of the soul
suffers when its _knowing_ aspect is perpetually contradicted by
scientific knowledge. There is such a close connection between "head"
and "heart"--even closer than between body and mind--that the use of
discarded theories of the universe and of life cannot but prove
injurious to the deepest source of life.

The mental conceptions of religion have, in the course of the ages,