It has been shown that the aims and results of science are
humanitarian. Science is solicitously concerned with the problems
of race betterment and human cooperation; with the promotion of
truth and justice and the spread of ethics among men, "Its religion,"
says Barry, "is a religion of things as they are, which translates hope
into purpose, and prayer into work for the betterment of humanity
here and now." Religion itself among us has become largely secular
in that it is devoted more and more to the problems of social improvement; and, as Conklin suggests, "If the humanitarian aims of both
science and religion could be viewed in the spirit of sweet reasonableness, it would be seen that the differences between them are not
such as to prevent fruitful cooperation in promoting human welfare."
St. Augustine's dream of the City of God has not been realized. The new city is an earth-conditioned city. "It gives up ideals," says Shotwell, "that suited a world to come for practical politics in a stern present. It is less interested in heaven and hell than in sanitation and unemployment. It is cleaning streets and tearing down slums. Even its evils are frankly human. We have no illusions about these things. They are ours for better or worse. We are responsible for them, and know it We can no longer escape by claiming that its good or ill are God's or Satan's. The City of Civilization is in our hands; and the knowledge that it rests with us to make it fit to be the symbol of either is the inspiration to make it worthy the dignity of man."
