"No

It has always seemed to me that a man should be willing to face the actualities of life; that he should be eager to know the truth regardless of the effect on his theories. It is foolish to cherish a delusion because it is pleasant. Therefore the spirit of dogmatism, both in science and religion, has been abhorrent to me. one of us is infallible," said Benjamin Jowett, "not even the youngest!" And I have felt that the religious man could show his faith in God in no better way than by welcoming the truth given in every department of research. The Holy Ghost is the spirit of truth, and in this age, I am sure, our best scientific minds are his anointed prophets and are manifesting his spirit and revealing his ways more truly than many of our statesmen or theologians. They are also restoring to us the lost gift of wonder.

But too many scientific men claim the word "knowledge" as their peculiar possession and grant to the bewildered spirit

of man only the satisfactions of conjecture. In these pages I claim the word for religion.

YALE UNIVERSITY.

CHARLES ALLEN DINSMORE.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

PROLOGUE

THE INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE ON MODERN

RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

Conflict between science and religion has its

origin in the nature of man. Dogmatism both

in religion and science. Definition of science.

Her spirit, purpose and method. Limitations

of her knowledge. Has modified our conception

of the extention of the universe in time and

space; has revealed the infinitely great and the

infinitely little. Changed conception of man;

of the Bible. Why the Bible will never be out

of date. The scientific method has been intro-

duced into theology. Sydney Smith quoted.

Pasteur quoted. The religious man should be

open minded.

CHAPTER II

THE NATURE AND TRUTH OF RELIGION

The religious impulse; its universality, its func-

tion in life; gives liberty, joy, peace, power as

an immediate possession. Is it an illusion?

The Power that makes for righteousness;

Moral virtues conform to the nature of things.

The universe on the side of the moral ideal.

Noblest minds not deluded. Personality of

God. Herbert Spencer quoted. The good su-

perior to the evil; the beautiful to the ugly.

Shakespeare quoted. Our sense of dependence

and our admiration for ideals. The Supreme

Power is one with the Supreme Worth. John

Tyndall quoted.

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CHAPTER III

WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE

BELIEVE

Sir Leslie Stephen quoted. More than one path

to knowledge. The "knowing faculties" not the

exclusive possession of science. They belong

also to religion. Definition of knowledge.

To what degree science knows. We know

aesthetic and moral values and forces which are

spiritually discerned. Huxley quoted. Religion

begins in faith and attains knowledge through

experience. Testimony of Kant, Tyndall,

Emerson. Had no help come from the Unseen

religion would have died out. The lover, the

artist, the saint know as well as the scientist.

Religious knowledge not independent of charac-

ter and moods, yet is in some respects superior

to scientific knowledge. James quoted. A test

of the claims of Christ. Future existence a

hope. Science has opened great spaces for this

hope.

65

RELIGIOUS CERTITUDE

IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE