No Conflict

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 16, 1909

Some people—among them some frightened Christians—are considerably exercised about the so-called conflicts of science and religion. One of these once said to a minister, “How do you reconcile the teachings of the Bible with the latest conclusions of science?” The minister’s reply was, “I haven’t seen this morning’s papers.” The truth is that the phrase, “latest conclusions of science,” contains an error in its very wording. There are no latest conclusions of science. Science is progressive, necessarily so. It can not be said to have conclusions. No one has yet discovered all that is to be known about anything. The knowledge of today is the discarded truth of to-morrow, for the reason that to-morrow has its larger truth. The partial must give place to the more complete. On the other hand, religion—the Christian religion—has come to the world as a divine revelation. Its large features we can see, if we will. While we shall never be able to exhaust its meanings, never be able, indeed, to understand it in its fulness, we do know that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. And there is no science, worthy of the name, that will ever contradict that sublime fact or go beyond it.—Northwestern Christian Advocate.