[319] Galatians, chap. iii. 14, 29. Gen. xxii. 16, 17.
[320] Architecture of the Heavens, 217.
[321] Architecture of the Heavens, 77, 130.
CHAPTER XIII.
Science, or Faith?
"Faith is destined to be left behind in the onward march of the human intellect. It belongs to an infantile stage of intellectual development, when experience, dependent on testimony, becomes the slave of credulity. Children and childish nations are prone to superstition. Religion belongs properly to such. Hence the endless controversies of religious sects. But as man advances into the knowledge of the physical sciences, and becomes familiarized with mathematical demonstration and scientific experiment, he demands substantial proofs for all kinds of knowledge, and rejects that which is merely matter of faith. The certainties of science succeed the controversies of creeds. Science thus becomes the grave of religion, as religion is vulgarly understood. But science gives a new and better religion to the world. Instead of filling men's minds with the vague terrors of an unknown futurity, it directs us to the best modes of improving this life."—"This life being the first in certainty, give it the first place in importance; and by giving human duties in reference to men the precedence, secure that all interpretations of spiritual duty shall be in harmony with human progress."—"Nature refers us to science for help, and to humanity for sympathy; love to the lovely is our only homage, study our only praise, quiet submission to the inevitable our duty; and truth is our only worship."—"Our knowledge is confined to this life; and testimony, and conjecture, and probability, are all that can be set forth in regard to another."—"Preach nature and science, morality and art; nature, the only subject of knowledge; morality, the harmony of action; art, the culture of the individual and society."[322]
Or, if you will insist upon preaching religion, support it "with such proofs as accompany physical science. This I have always loved; for I never find it deceives me. I rest upon it with entire conviction. There is no mistake, and can be no dispute in mathematics. And if a revelation comes from God, why have we not such evidence for it as mathematical demonstration?"
Such is the language now used by a large class of half-educated people, who, deriving their philosophy from Comte, and their religion from the Westminster Review, invite us to spend our Sabbaths in the study of nature in the fields and museums, turn our churches into laboratories, exchange our Bibles for encyclopedias, give ourselves no more trouble about religion, but try hard to learn as much science, make as much money, and enjoy as much pleasure in this life as we can; because we know that we live now, and can only believe that we shall live hereafter. I do not propose to take any notice here of the proposal of Secularism—for that is the new name of this ungodliness—to deliver men from their lusts by scientific lectures, and keep them moral by overturning religion. That experiment has been tried already. But it is worth while to inquire, Is science really so positive, and religion so uncertain, as these persons allege? Is a knowledge of the physical sciences so all-sufficient for our present happiness, so attainable by all mankind, and so certain and infallible, that we should barter our immortality for it? And, on the other hand, are the great facts of religious experience, and the foundations of our religious faith, so dim, and vague, and utterly uncertain, that we may safely consign them to oblivion, or that we can so get rid of them if we would?