ABSTRACT
It is widely recognised at the present day that the modern spirit of scientific inquiry has in the main exerted a wholesome influence upon Theology, clearing it of much encumbrance of doubtful doctrine, freeing it from slavery to the literal accuracy of historical records and reducing the region of the miraculous or the incredible, with which it used to be almost conterminous, to a comparatively small area. In disposition also Religion and Science are opposite. Science cultivates a vigorous, adult, intelligent, serpent-like wisdom and active interference with the course of nature; religion fosters a meek, receptive, child-hearted attitude of dovelike resignation to the Divine will. According to the one conception, faith is childish and prayer absurd; the only individual immortality lies in the memory of descendants; benevolence and cheerful acquiescence in fate are the highest religious attributes possible; and the future of the human race is determined by the law of gravitation and the circumstances of space.
