Science and Christianity.
By T. T. E.
THERE has for several generations been a class of men who claimed that science overthrew Christianity. Christians have not been slow to reply that the Bible was capable of being interpreted so as to harmonize with science, and many are the books which have been written to establish the harmony. Each new discovery in nature and each new theory of science are arrayed against our religion, and Christians busy themselves to harmonize the Scriptures with them, claiming that between true science and the Bible rightly understood there is no conflict. While this is true, yet Christians foolishly allow themselves to be thrown upon the defensive, and they forget the history of the conflict. There is not now and has not been any conflict between science and religion. The conflict has been between the science of one age with the science of a previous age. Take the case of Galileo, which skeptics are so fond of citing. True, those who claimed to be Christians persecuted him for denying the Ptolemaic theory of astronomy. But where did that theory come from? Was it not invented and advocated by scientific men? Time was when it was "contrary to science" to deny the Ptolemaic system. Galileo's controversy, therefore, was not with any article of religion or any doctrine of Scripture, but with the science of a previous age. It was simply science against science. The fault of Galileo's persecutors was that they believed what science had taught them. Scientific men advance their theories. Theologians believe them. Presently the scientific men change their theories, and then a small class of them attack the theologians for believing what science has taught them, and say that the Bible is overthrown and Christianity must go. A more absurdly ridiculous performance it would be difficult to conceive. If the theologians of the past were to blame for believing what the scientific men of the past taught, then the proper thing for us is to refuse to believe what scientific men of the present teach, so that we will not be blamed in the time to come, and so that no contradiction can be made out between our scientific beliefs and the future theories of men of science.—T. T. E., in N. Y. Examiner.