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

240 SCIENCE AND RELIGION.cle, nerve, and cellular tissue, while observationalscience is capable of recognizing noinore than these, so that, if there be anything more, it is quite beyond the range ofphysical science, and within the territory ofmental philosophy. Here then, is preparationfor conflict, which may be accepted asinevitable, because of the advance of science.The occasion for this expectation should, however,be fully understood. Its certainty maybe maintained on two obvious grounds. Thefirst is concerned with the history of scientificprogress. Science is pushing its way upthe extended scale of existence with no exactknowledge of its own limits; knowingwhat its achievements have been, animatedto a high degree by the vastness of theproblems still before it, but knowing nothingquite definite as to its own boundaries.The aggressive force of science at such a stagemust be great. On the other hand, thereis a large body of settled conviction, whichhas swayed men and moulded society in allages, which is an opposing force operatingon that very line along which science isadvancing, and which must be encounteredwhenever man's place in the universe be-