The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1878-12-26
Religion in These Days.

Mans place IN nIture has never
( been 81 sharply aud profoundly Tues-
! TONED as il has heen during the past
| ten years. The answer which science
preSumeS To give. when il preSumeS to
4 give any, is not one which pleaSeS or
| in any way satisfies itself. Dust thou
art and unto dust shalt thou return
Matter and force have manifested
| themselves in man. in form and phe-
nOmena, and the matter and force
which have made man shall at last br
refunded into the common stock, Ia be
used over and over and over again, in
other forms and phenomena. There is
Il body, but there is no such thing as
mind. independent of body. The dual
| ism of constitution in which we have
| believed, and which lies at the basis of
all our religion and philosophy, is a
| deluSiOn. Out of all the enormous eN-
penditure of ingenuity, or of what ap-
pears to be. or seems like, ingenuity,
nothing is saved. The great field of
Star-mist out of which our solar sys-
TEN was made has been hardened into
planets, set in motion and filled with
life, to go on for untold ages, and then
to come to an end-pOssibly to become
field of Star-mist again; and nothing
is to he saved out of the common fund
of matter and force that can go On in
an independent, immortal life. Man
is simply a higher form of animal.
God as a personality does not exist.
/ Immortality is a dream, and the
Christian religion, of course, is a de-
lusiOn.
These conclusions seem 10 he the
believes nothing that ii cannot prove.
There may be a personal God, who
takes cOgniZance of the personal af-
| fairs of men, but science cannot prove
it; therefore belief in personal
God is "unscientifc." There may he
such a thing as the human. SOul-a
spirit that has a life, or the pOSsibili-
ties of a'life. independent of the body;
but il cannot he proved. Indeed, II
seems To be proved that all the phe-
nOmena of what We call mind are at
tributahle to changes that take place
among the molecules of the brain.
Therefore. a belief in the human soul
is unScientitic. Of course. If there Is
no human soul. there Is nothing to
save, and If there he nothing to save,
Christ Was, consciously or mcOn-
SciOusly, an impOStOr; and the hopes
and eNpec tatiOnS of all ChTistendOm
are vain. And this is the highest con-
cluSiOn In which science seems tO be
able To lead uS. Can anything he
imagined to lie more lame and i'm
potent: We should think that every
laboratory and every scientific school.
and every library and study of man
of science. would seem like a tomb.
That this attitude of prominent men
of science toward the great questions
that relate Ia God, Immortality. and
the nature OF the human soul and the
Christian religion, has sadly shaken
the faith of Il great multitude. there is
no doubt. Society is hOneycOmbed
with iniidelity. Men Stagger in their
pulpits with their burden of difficult
ties and doubts. The theological semi
naries have become Shaky places, and
faith has taken its flight from an I'M
counted number of souls, leaving them
in Il darkness and sadness that no
words can describe. All this is true.
Ii is 81 true that tears NAV well min
gle in ones ink as he writes il: hut,
after all, We have everything left that
We have ever possessed. Nothing is
proved against our faith. Science has
never proved that there - no personal
God, no soul, no Immortality, no
Christ. and these are matters that we
have always taken on faith. Not only
this, but they are matters which
science is utterly incompetent Ia han
die. They are outside of the domain
Of science, Science car no more touch
them than it can touch anything that
il cOnfesses to be "unknOWahie. -.
q. HOiidHd. ia SrribHcr far J0H|1rg.