The Philosophy of Creation/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV.
SCIENCE AND RELIGION.
The Distinction Between Science And
Philosophy.
The human mind is such a form that it can, by the use of its higher faculties, ascend above the plane of seeing effects to that of the perception of causes.
Without the knowledge of causes there can be no philosophy. Philosophy is not the facts of science coördinated. Extend science however much, it will not produce philosophy. Philosophy is superior to science as reason is superior to the facts of which it is the interpreter. The extension of one step will not make a flight of stairs. Something more must be added. So to science, which treats of effects, the perception of causes must be added to obtain philosophy. The philosophy of a thing comprehends the relation of its cause and its effect. The facts of philosophy constitute science. It is a scientific truth that the ocean currents move westward at the tropics. A knowledge of the mobility of the molecules of water, of the rotation of the earth, of temperature, of the action of the moon and the sun, of the contour of coasts, of the deflection of currents, of the curvature of the earth, of the principles of momentum, and the like, is the means of perceiving the causes of currents. In the degree that the causes are explained we have the philosophy of currents.
Certain laws secure in society liberty and equal rights, and preserve peace. These laws, together with the method of enforcing them, constitute the science of government. There are causes for having such laws; namely, that the arts and sciences may be cultivated; that schools and moral institutions may exist where people are trained for mutual use; that the form of advancing civilization may be preserved, and love and wisdom bless all with the fulfilled purposes of creation. These things are of the philosophy of government, and constitute the causes of it. The laws according to which the cause operates or is executed constitute the science of government.
So let us this early distinguish clearly the degrees of altitude that exist between cause and effect, between philosophy and science. Science finds its higher use in philosophy, for by science philosophy is confirmed, whereby wisdom is obtained, and man is enabled to live in a higher and more perfect state.
It is proposed to show that man is a form composed of a succession of planes reaching upward coincident with creation, and so organized that he may ascend upon the successive planes of his own constitution, and from each plane investigate the corresponding plane in creation, and at last obtain definite and positive knowledge of the great First Cause. This can not be done by science alone. Yet by philosophy, of which science is a servant and tool, such knowledge, when once revealed, may be confirmed; and it may be seen to be of a no less certain character than science itself.
Science Will Be Transferred From The
Materialists To Those Who Believe
In God.
The assiduous labors of Materialists in the field of science, have contributed many valuable facts for the use of philosophy. But in their philosophy they have made such use of the facts that they have travelled the circumference of a circle to the place of beginning, a state of agnosticism. Yet the last state is worse than the first, for they have returned with their minds swept of all genuine truth, and with the hopeless conviction added, that they can not know first causes.
The supreme use of science is to aid in the acquisition of spiritual truths, whereby God is revealed. Genuine scientifics act as mirrors in which images of interior things appear. But where science is so falsified that it ascribes the origin of creation to the atom and to nature, no similitude of interior things remains, and spiritual truths perish. Spiritual truth can not be restored prior to a right interpretation of scientific truth, for genuine scientifics provide an external image, without which, ideas of spiritual truths can not exist.
Therefore it is that for the restoration of the liberty of mind, the advancement of science, the development of philosophy, the acquisition of spiritual truth, and the elevation of mankind, science must be transferred to those who will lift their minds above the merely sensual and material to the acknowledgment and comprehension of God.
Science And Religion Are Fundamentally A
Unit.
Science and religion are not, like truth and falsity, antithetical. Truth can not be opposed to truth. Science is the lower order of truth. Religion appertains to the higher order of truth. It is essential at the outset to distinguish different degrees of truth as well as of substances. There is earth, air, and ether illustrative of successively higher degrees. There are scientific truths, civil truths, and spiritual truths. The truths of natural science are the lowest, for they appertain to the earth, matter, and material forms. If man lives in harmony with natural science, it will be conducive to health. Civil truths are of a higher order for they govern the relations of men. If all live according to these, there will be added to health liberty, peace, and the profits and pleasures of social intercourse. Spiritual truths are still higher, for they govern motives, and cleanse the mind from injurious thoughts and desires. They bring, in addition to health and the profits of orderly civil life, purity of mind and heart and the consequent deeper and sweeter joys of life. Yet in no way are scientific, civil, and spiritual truths antithetical. Indeed, they are mutually helpful, one augmenting the other; for one can not exist in any degree of fulness without the other. They serve one another as do the bones, the muscles, and the nerves in the body. The science of religion, in the . broadest and most complete form, embraces all these kinds of truths. The philosophy of religion may be properly considered as composed of all degrees of truth coördinated on their respective planes, and arranged in successive degrees according to their natural order. Religion itself is the science and philosophy of religion, together with a life according thereto. Dogmas, fanaticism, and sectarianism have been called religion, and well has the science of this day remonstrated. But such religion is practically of the past, and science and true religion must eventually be found united, as the works of God must be, in perfect concord and mutual service. Religion in its broadest sense is commensurate with Divine truth and life, but for convenience we may speak of science as appertaining to nature, and religion to God. The belief that religion is a statement of faith belongs to the past. Religion is truth and life from the Creator operative in man. When religion is made such, it is at once conclusive that religion and science are but the upper and lower parts of one thing, which one thing is as harmonious as the soul and the body. Indeed, religion is the soul of science, and without religion science has no soul, and can not exist in any true sense.
Creation By Correspondence.
The doctrine of creation according to the law of Correspondence, by which we shall endeavor to explain causes, is at once consistent with facts, experience, nature, reason, and revelation. It is in harmony with all true principles of science and of religion.
The doctrine can not be resisted on the grounds that it is hypothetical, for it must be remembered that natural philosophy is largely hypothetical, particularly in regard to sound, heat, and light. The hypothetical enters extensively into higher mathematics, and chemistry is based upon the hypothetical atom. In fact without the hypothetical, there would be but little of philosophical science. The explanation based upon hypothesis being reasonable, the hypothetical is properly granted, and taken as true. This is an everyday occurrence with the scientist, with which he should be too familiar to oppose at the outset a theory that to him might at first glance appear hypothetical. Yet the doctrine of creation by Correspondence is not in any field of reasoning hypothetical. The main argument will be sufficiently supported by invulnerable rational truth.
Evolution and the doctrine of creation by Correspondence are exact opposites, both in substance and in method of development. Evolution begins with the atom, or with forces operative in nature, like gravity, attraction, and chemical affinity; and ascends. The doctrine of Correspondence commences with the Creator, and descends. It is like the inner vesture of the Lord, "woven from the top through." Each method is like its theory, the one deriving creation from a natural force working upward, while the other offers a solution from a supernatural force working downward. Yet as the descending supernatural force returns in ascending creation. Evolution may be regarded as a substantially correct presentation of how the supernatural force appears while operative in nature; or in other words, Evolution is the apparent truth, as is the statement that a stick is bent upon immersion in water, or that the sun rises and sets. It is the apparent truth that has given Evolution its present credence.
Since the science of to-day is forced to the conclusion that it can not discover or explain any interior or supernatural cause, we are next led to consider revelation, the origin of all knowledge of interior causes and of genuine philosophy.