The Logical Relations of Religion and Natural Science [pp. 577-608]

THE
PRINCETONo REVIEW.
OCTOBER, 1860.
No. IV.
ART. I.-The Logical Relations of Religion and Natural
Science.
PHYSICAL science, at the present day, investigates phenomena simply as they are in themselves. This, if not positively
atheistic, must be of dangerous tendency. Whatever deliberately omits God from the universe, is closely allied to that
which denies him.
We cannot thoroughly investigate nature without asking for
the origin and source of all things. Science undertakes to
solve questions which compel either the acknowledgment of
God, or the assertion of open atheism, or else a resort to that
concealed atheism which quietly sets God aside without directly
denying his existence. When, for example, a philosopher says
that certain causes produced the present state of our earth, he
is bound to answer the question, Did those causes arise from
the will of an infinitely wise Creator? For, if the creating
agency of Jehovah is admitted, we thus bring into scientific
research an element which cannot be adequately comprehended
except by an intellect equal to that of Deity. All physical *
theories must be exceedingly controlled and limited by the
admission of such an element. That which to us seems impro voL. xxxII.-No. IV. 74