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

INORGANIC ELEMENTS. 103of energy can be brought into existence byany process at our command, is simply astatement of the invariability of the quantityof energy in the universe, -a companionstatement to that of the invariability of thequantity of matter." *The position is now reached at which it becomespossible to combine the results of scientificresearch as to matter and energy intoa harmonious unity, with which to test theview of the world recognized by religiousthought. Religion as an intelligent and devotionalacknowledgment of a Supreme Being,involves a very clear and definite conceptionconcerning the origin of the universeand its continuance. What is thus impliedwill be best indicated by negative as well aspositive statements, in some such form as thefollowing. First, negatively, the world we inhabitdoes not carry within it any explanationof the origin of its own existence; that is tosay, neither the materials existing, nor theforces operating, are sufficient to account forits origin; neither can it have had existencewithout beginning. In positive form, the universecan be accounted for only by that whichRemnt Advances of Physioal Science, p. 17.