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SCIENCE THE FOUNDATION OF RELIGION. There is a great conflict of opinion between science, with its manifold dis coveries and theories, and the different systems of religious faiths that con trol the mind of Christendom at the present time. It is a theme which greatly interests the world, whether in religion or secular life, and the at tack or defense shows little relenting on either side. In all ages science has been looked upon by the church as an aggressor, whose intrusion pol luted the atmosphere of the temples made holy by the hypocrisy that has woven for its supporters a cloak from the tinsel threads of ignorance.
The great problem of the thinking world now seems to be how to recon cile science with religion and faith with knowledge, and the world is called upon by hungry souls for a solution of this problem that they may see upon what kind of a founda tion they can build their superstruct ure.
It certainly cannot be that science or knowledge is the enemy of religion for if so, religion would mean ignorance.
Once the weapons were all in the hands of cynics and skeptics, and gibes and contemptuous words were the most powerful arguments they could bring; but they only proved how weak were their own minds when they could find no stronger weapons, for these proved feeble and futile as battle axes as they neared the Holy of Holies.
Believers had only to stand firm with the mantle of courage wrapped closely around them, while their shield of faith turned aside many a poisoned arrow that was aimed with a double purpose by the subtle foe.
To-day the arguments are present ed in different ways and arranged in different garbs. There is little of the frivolous spirit or love of sophistical reasoning perceptible, but a spirit of earnest inquiry animates all hearts; a desire to find out the reality of things at all hazards by searching into the works of nature, that they may become acquainted with its great Author. Science brings forth all her powers and scans every law that gov erns the universe, searching for a possible recognition of a tie that can connect it with the great Unknown.
Every soul in which there is a spark of the Divine life believes that God is in all his created works, and that they are the outmost expression of his thought; therefore must be convinced that God is as much the author of faith as of the visible, physical struct ure.
Many infer that it is impossible for religion and science to have any con nection whatever. If this were our belief we could the more readily ac quiesce to the demands of each, and agree not to infringe upon the other’s right or territory, but with advanced minds this seems impossible.
A mere subterfuge can never satisfy a thoroughly candid searcher after truth, for the footprints of the Creator are too visible and speak too emphatically in their ears; their souls must bow in reverence as they, with full hearts, exclaim, “ Great and marvelous are Thy works, 0 Lord!” In this simple, inner recognition they are brought very close to the great Father of all, and if they at first fail to discover a perfect relation between their religion and their knowledge they have a faith remaining that compels them to be lieve that it will yet be discovered.
When every student discovers for himself that each step in the march of progress discloses new relations between the different branches of science, which at one time were so un connected, he will at once be led to question the reason why religion should be an exception, and will also discover that however great the trans formation of scientific ideas they in directly but unmistakably give a color to religion.
The great law of analogy can alone open the door of the mind and give it full scope whereby it will be able to reach the goal of all true scientists.
When I say science I mean all sciences; physical, mental, moral, political and historical—a complete knowledge of facts and principles, causes and effects and their relation to the world of phenomena—in fact, every thing that teaches us of the great Universal of which we are but a part, a little embryo in which life is barely visible, yet with which we are connected by the ever mysterious tie.
Such science must form the basis of religion; “ the lowest always forming the basis of the highest, as matter
forms the basis of life, and life of mind; so the natural must form the basis of the supernatural.” It does not follow that the germ of religion is buried in science, this can only be discovered by revelation. The similar ity between religious and scientific spirits is great, both being actuated by the love of truth which is some thing more than veracity. It is the earnest soul-felt desire to conform un settled opinions to real substantial discoveries, a desire that actuates the mind of every true votary of either science or religion.
The purpose of religion is not simply a knowledge of truth, but that through the application of the actual principles and laws of truth we may gain Life.
To know what God has to teach is the way of Life. To know God as he manifests himself in tangible form is 1 Life.
Although science has ever stood in such an attitude of hostility toward religion,this very spiritof antagonism weakens its power ana circumscribes its sphere of usefulness. If it could once find its inspiration in true re ligious conviction, such as animated the heart of Kepler when he affirmed “that in tracing out the laws of nature he was only ’thinking God’s thoughts after him,” they would do a' better work, for if the aspiration of the soul for Divine knowledge and the per ceptive faculties were conjoined they could better demonstrate the laws that govern the universe, reaching from the atom up till it becomes a part in the formation of the finite : God.
What is Science ? What is religion ? If science is all systematized and trustworthy knowledge and in that knowledge is all power, it takes in all there is of God and his works. It cannot be narrowed down to certain knowledges or a partial view of a few that are selected by weak minds, but must extend to the limit—even to God himself; we must know what God is like.
Religion is a retying or rebinding to God, “a living for God, with God, and in God.” The spiritual nature of man is manifested through the various channels of the human organ ism taking on varied forms. In the intellectual degree we have knowledge and wisdom; through the will we have religion, sentiment, attraction, rever ence and love; but through all an ac tivity impelling us to progress, a desire to search with ever-increasing zeal.
This may be pure, lofty and intense and ultimately we gain a knowledge of man in his elevated nature, recog nizing that he is a moral and spirit ual being capable of reaching an eter nal existence, attaining even to an equality with Deity.
If we view science and religion from the point where we have given our definition, we see that it is in the pro vince of science to systematize that upon which religion builds her struct ure, and that it should be a safe guard. When there is a willingness on the part of intellectual people to admit an error in judgment there will be found a stepping-stone to higher intelligence. We n6ed that independ ence of mind that will think, act and speak against the tide of the antago nistic majority. This will open new channels in the mind, and science will then make rapid strides in the great realm of true usefulness.
Years ago Copernicus and Galileo dared assert new ideas in science, though one was weak enough in after years to adjure by oath on his knees, the sublime truths of his scientific creed. Yet the previous assertion lived and has descended on the stream of time till it has become a mighty power. While it may have been sorely mixed with fallacy, it has done its work and was an instrument in God’s hand to revolutionize the world, for it helped to broaden men’s minds and lead them into new chan nels of research.
The religious reformers, too, dared assert their advanced beliefs, and in consequence disobeyed the mandate of those whose ignorance enslaved humanity, chaining their minds to the lowest concept of Divine relations.
It was the segregation of the old Church with its forms; a struggle for liberty. Though it did not result in what was hoped for the Church, it paved the way for better things inas much as the forged chains of Papacy were broken and man could think and speak untrammeled by the creed of man. The combined efforts in the search for truth in a great measure united the leading spirits of the age ' with one accord.
Science was formally actuated by a love of knowledge without the appli cation. The first discovery that in the least degree tended to substitute a reign of natural law for a “caprice in nature” was supposed to be a dis covery that the eclipses came in reg ular course and could be predicted, but it was ages before men learned that the phenomena of nature were the re sult of forces acting by law. The truth that in nature there was perfect order governed by law finally dawned upon them, and in this knowledge it was decided that more was attainable.
The astronomer brought out his powerful telescope to scan the vault ed heavens and read there mysteries that his mind could not comprehend or explain except that tilings were not as Ifiey seemed to be; that the earth’s rela tion to the heavens was a flat con tradiction to blind theories. In vain has he availed himself of thousands of years of study and astonishing in strumental power, for he can never tell the number of the stars any more than he can count the grains of sand upon the sea-shore, but “he must ac knowledge that One ever preserves the order, harmony and beauty of the in finite host.” The most learned and accurate ob server is overwhelmed at the magni tude of God’s works, but the familiar study of these heavenly bodies has not rent the mystery which inspired the devotion .of the* sages of Chaldea.
Though astronomers reject the super stition of the early ages, the starry host maintains the same relative posi tion which it held when the sweet singer of Israel gazed upon it from the mountain of his inspiration.
I Astronomers have studied but in vain, for their theories have led them into darkness and God is pushed back into the great unknown and unknowable.
The ancients believed that the earth was a flat surface, but with fast ad vancing strides science discovers that it is a fixed ball with its revolving planets, then advances the idea that it is one of the many planets re volving around the sun and that it is but one of an infinite number of worlds with which the depths of space are strewn, every one with its attend ant planets.
The scientist sees precisely the same law of force working in one planet as in every one of “yonder million spheres.” This conception has taken such a strong hold of man’s imagination that now in this age of advanced thought when the greatest astronomer of the world brings forth his discovery that this world is a hollow sphere with the sun in the center, 4,000 miles from the circumference, which is the earth, and that between the earth and the sun are three atmospheres and that in these atmospheres are the stars, planets and moon, it seems to the pre judiced world but an hallucination of a mind unbalanced; but science has the opportunity now as ever and progress is written on every page of time.
Koreshans are far in advance of the Hindu philosophers who represent the world as a “fiat, triangular surface composed of several stories, the whole mass supported upon the heads of ele phants who in turn are supported by a huge tortoise,” or the more advanc ed Greek who considered the heavens a solid vault studded with burnished gems.
“They accounted for the mo tion of the planets by fancying that there was somewhere hidden in the mystic blue a strange magic machin ery of cycles and epicyles.” How much deeper in error were these than the so-called scientists of modern times who teach that we are on the outside of a revolving ball, with our heads hanging in the vapory realm of no- where, while the sun is 95,000,000 miles away?
Religion has ever walked apace with science and its wise fathers taught doctrines as absurd through all ages, and even condemned to death one who boldly advanced the idea of the earth’s motion.
Geology brings in her devotees and they have found the impress of the creative fingers left upon the rocks of of the pre-Adamic earth, and the leaves of the great book of nature are full of records of various changes. We hear of strange forms entombed in the rocky strata, fossils of unheard of plants and animals “the nature of which is little understood.” Some hold the idea that they are but a re sult of fermentation of fatty matter or terrestrial exhalations, or that they are mere earthy concretions, sports of nature, while only a few maintain ed that they are the remains of ani-
mais. Strange, mysterious, hiero glyphic record of their birth and death, but their life is as a dream 1 Half educated infidels glory in this contri bution to their cause but the masters of science and the humble Christian reads m this testimony of the rocks the written word of Jehovah which shall endure forever.
The history of each period is in delibly printed upon the strata of that period and now are found fossils, which, if not identical with recent species nearly approach them, and the buried works of art are also a re cord of the ancient people of those periods.
We read in history that “ during the French campaign in Egypt the troops stationed at Rosetta dug up a mutilat ed tablet of black basalt of a triang ular character, covered with hiero glyphics, cursive Egyptian and Greek, the latter being a degree of Ptolemy Epiphanes which concluded with these words: This decree shall be en graved on hard stone in sacred, com mon and Greek characters.” The fortunes of war carried this stone to George HI. of England, who placed it in the British museum where it attracted the attention of learned scientists and from it, after much research and labor, the cele brated Champollion obtained the key to the hieroglyphics of Egypt by which the history of that country has been unlocked. There is one who suggests “ that the Rosetta stone may be a fair symbol of the account of creation which is sealed up in the rocky strata, and in future some Champollion may find the mystic key that will unlock the great book of na ture and it can be read by the whole world.” There may be then such a revela tion of the great unknown as shall open the ears of the multitude to hear the voice that spake to Job out of the whirlwind, “where wast thou when I laid thè foundation of the earth? declare, if thou hast under standing. Who hath laid the meas ure thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations there of fastened ? or who laid the corner stone thereof, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” We see before us a succession of worlds which have no beginning and will have no end, but onward and onward through the great cycles of time it repeats itself.
If the Bible account of the creation has been the stumbling-block of most scientists they can avoid it. if they can once realize that it was not alone a mere historical account of the forma tion of the physical universe but a symbol of man’s redemption.
All proofs of knowledge are said to rest upon faith. Science and faith are equal proofs of unseen things.
This rock upon which so many scien tific explorers have been wrecked af fords a vast field for scientific inquir ies, however varied their nature or long their duration. The alchemist toils with his crucible and alembic, calcin ing, subliming and distilling, not alone with a view to discover the ! chemical properties of a substance but with the view to discover the great secret of transmutation, also if pos sible the elixir which will prolong life ; amid all, he finds the subtle essence of a force that reveals much, for he finds he is not only able to convert base metal to gold but discovers a law reaching still higher, finding that all matter may be converted to spirit, proving that even this corrupt body of ours, which one of our metaphysic al teachers most poetically describes as “the coarser fabric of the soul,” may be transformed and become a glorified spirit.
We see that science is full of no tions concerning force and causation in every line, but investigation cannot proceed without it. Attraction and cohesion, what are these to the mind but force? They pervade all space and all matter.
There are various kinds of this force; crystaline, electric, chemical, caloric and last but not less potent, mind force. If science believes that the smallest quantity of matter is indestructible, so the small est quantity of force is equally inde structible. There can be no effect without a cause, and effect must al ways be equal to the cause. There can be nothing put forth that does not inhere in the cause. Men of the deep est scientific research, the great, grand minds of the world unite in their testi mony of a belief in a great First Cause of all these wonderful developments which they have found from their own
experimental efforts, yet it is made a serious problem by mental philoso phers, also theologians, to determine why, with this irresistible belief that all possess, they never can arrive at any harmonious conclusion respecting God. The folds of mystery draw closer and closer.
Sir Isaac Newton concluded his im mortal “Principia” by declaring that “this most beautiful system of the sun, planets and stars could only proceed from the counsel and domin ion of an intelligent and powerful Being.” “This Being,” he says,
“governs all things, not as sons of the world but as Lord over all.” The admission of this great mind has weighed heavily against the argu ments of the infidel.
Chemists, geologists, physicists and the host of scientific minds in every line have revealed much regarding the world and are constantly talking of the laws of gravitation, combus tion, and development; many appar ently forgetting that laws never make themselves. To realize that this great Framer and Controller of all things is not a cold, abstract principle but the power of a living, personal God is the most reasonable conclusion.
The creative power must co-exist with his universe, so he must be a personality. Creating man in his own likeness, he put forth his own image, therefore God must be man; not man as we see him to-day but the perfected God-man, male and female in one form.
From the study of the great uni verse involving all, from the vaulted glowing mass of gems above our heads down to the tiny seed as it puts forth its little germ whose young life is nourished by the cotyledon which has so long held it a captive in its bosom, we may trace the finger of Him whose omnipotence is felt as a mighty force that overreaches all others. The searcher for truth in stinctively turns and looks within, awaking suddenly to a knowledge that while he has sought so assidu ously to penetrate the mysteries of nature the best expression of all creat ed works (man) has been left almost unnoticed and he is led to inquire “What is man?” The door of consciousness is fur tively opened and he exclaims, “At least, he is fearfully and wonderfully made!” This temple of the mind, whose power can penetrate the mystic, realm and which has a complete, phenomenal existence with capacity for growth and increasing power, is but an embryo universe. Science has, in a measure, traced the law of development. The animated germ, the product of previous existing organism, is built up of organic and inorganic elements with physical force till it becomes a fully developed, well organized body, composed of atoms infinitesimal and by some mysterious means endowed with life.
What is life? A celebrated Greek philosopher defines life as a “result of a general harmony or consent of action between different organs of the body.” One of the latest definitions is this: “Life is a series of definite and successive changes both of struct ure and composition which take place in an individual without destroying his identity.” The devout soul accepts all this from one standpoint, but a higher, holier thought thrills him as he replies, “It is the breath of God.” The faith of Koreshanity asserts that in their most essential nature God and man are one. We see in science the true foundation of religion.
It scans the works of God and brings out the occult forces, unwinding the web that time has woven across the door of the ruined temples of nature ; penetrates the secret nooks and clois ters, bringing out long buried treas ures and by knowledge gained by rich experience reads the mysterious hiero glyphics traced upon the rocks that have been imbedded for ages in the ruined cities of the Ancients, for it was left till cycles of time should roll over, and when the endless chain has made one grand round on the great wheel, God will translate by the mouth of his Anointed to whom he has delivered the keys of all knowl edge. He will turn the wise men backward and make their wisdom foolishness.
The treasures of darkness and hid den riches of secret places are now laid before us, for a greater than Champollion is here to unlock the treasure-house where, through count less ages, the Divine knowledge has been sealed up; and the symbolic
language of the Bible is now read and translated so plainly that none can fail to comprehend its full meaning.
I t is found that the Bible is the greatest scientific book the world has ever opened, and that* it gives not only a description of the natural world but of the spiritual also, which brings man into perfect relation with his maker.
It is written “ God made man in in Lis own image.” In the study of the microcosm with its infinite complication of mental and phys ical forces, by the law of analogy we can read the mysterious characters which reveal the whole history of the macrocosm. The astronomer may now lay aside his telescope, the geolo gist his pick and shovel, the alchem ist may hide his crucible and alembic, for the Philosopher’s Stone has been discovered and their search will be in vain. The great problem of life has been solved. The greatest of all sci entists, who involves all the science and knowledge of the universe has cometous asa thief in the nightand has pillaged the ancient temple of Fame, gathering to himself the lore of the ages, and through their inversion has evolved the greatest know ledge of all—the “ Science of Im mortal Life.” We need no Cham pollion to read the hieroglyphics on the rocks of earth for the Champion Lion of the world is here to smite the rocks of ignorance and level them in the dust, and in theirplace shall spring up a fountain for the cleansing of the nations; and the Lion of the tribe of Judah shall totally destroy the lion of the bottomless pit and his perverted wisdom and fallacious knowledge shall be as chaff before the whirl wind.
Thus saith the Lord God Almighty : by the mouth of “Cyrus, His AnoiniP ed,” “I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish. ” Over the fund of knowledge, garnered by those who have hitherto called themselves the scientists of the world, Koresh has drawn his hand, thereby inverting the erroneous teach ings of science, transforming fallacy to truth and bringing out to the light the treasures of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places.
Koreshans will now under the lead ership of the great champion of Truth, the Messiah of the new age, build the sure foundation of their scientific religion and will errect their temple wherein they can worship Jehovah, the maker of heaven and earth, whose visible tangible humanity is His crowning glory.—Mizpah.
HALF THE BATTLE. It is half the battle to have implicit faith in the undertaking.
People who go at a thing half hearted are pretty nearly worsted in whatever conflict may come before they reach it. One reason why reforms do not make more rapid progress than they do is because the world at large honestly thinks that they cannot be made successful and consequently will either prevent their inauguration or hamper them at every step after they are inauguated.
- People have failed in everything.
People have failed in living and yet life can be made a success. It is the croaker who does an incalculable a- mount of damage in this world. He croaks because he does not stop to think. He is too lazy or too stupid to think and so he croaks which is al ways easy tb do. He tells us the coun try will be ruined if we have free coinage of silver. How does he know ?
He knows nothing at all about it. He is croaking. He tells us it is stupid to suppose that the govern ment can issue money direct. What does he know about it? The govern ment can do it if it wishes to and as to the result the croaker knows no more than any other man. * While we who are engaged in public reforms may expect to find croakers outside the ranks of those who have felt keenly the need of reforms, we ought not to have croakers within our ranks. But we have a good many.
They are always looking upon the dark side of things. They are con stantly saying that we cannot regu late the railroad, do away with the I national banks, change the financial policy of the government, or do many other needed things, because there is too much money against us. Do not let us be croakers. Free Americans can do anything that should be done.
They have always proved themselves equal to any emergency and always will.—Editorial in Western Rural.'
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 2, No. 23 · May 9, 1891 · PDF p. 2