The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-08-15
AUGUST ID, 1878.
miscellaneous.
DR.. Fowler Arguing that the
Bible is the Forerunner OF
Scientific Fact.

AlhIpINi ~
The Rev. q. IL. Fowler, ID. d.,
editor of the Christian Advocate
Of New York, lectured to-day to
the largest audience which has vet
assembled here this year. His
topic a "'The Bible, the Prophet
of Science" The Doctor held
that the Bible is the forerunner of
scientific fact, and In time is verl-
fed By it. He presented the rela-
tons assumed between the two,
and said the assumed antagonlsm
Is chiefly the result Of cXaggera-
ton. Humboldt says, Il am OF
the religion of all men of science"
as if all agreed. A distinguished
churchman was equally on the
other side, when he SAID. "Ao
men great in science accept a
wins hypothesis" Draper Illus
trates the extreme bias against the
Bible I'm his conflict between rell-
eion and science. He condemns
Christianity not for its morals, but
for the bad science of the dark ages.
Tyndall, a truly great s%avant, but
a weak philosopher, also illustrates
this bias against the Bible views of
nature. lie praises the atomic
theory of Epicurus as giving his
contemporaries an elevated view of
nature, but seems not to know that
Epicurus never reduced the num-
ber of idols i'm the world; nor that
twelve hundred years before Epicu-
rus, II Moses so taught the unity
Of nature and of God us to raise up
4 race of Monothesists, who have
tiled all the ages and overt1owed all
the centuries; nor that Paul on
Mars Hill taught the people ma
lures unity. The antagonlsm be-
tween science and the Bible is nat
ural. first, from the finiteness of
the human mind; given to any II
line Of study, other lines are under
valued, only God is greatest in all
directions: second, from the sub
iects studied by theologians and
savants, namely, mental and eXter-
nal phenomena; third, from the
faculties emphasized by each, name
". the reflections and perceptions;
fourth. from the modes of reasoning
Il priori and Il poStert0ri; and fifth,
from the philosophlzing OF each.
The certainties found in the Bible
concerning some things just reached
by science are made wonderful by
the uncertainties that have always
characterized them unaided by hui
man thinking. This uncertainty
was was illustrated by words in the
language, such as ''repent," ''to
grow" ito turn FROM" by the the
cries about the spots on the sun,
by non-Euclidian gcometers, and
by various theories of the origin of
things.
The body o. the argument of the
lecture consisted of Il presentation
of Il number of points, III which the
Bible anticipated science in a
knowledge of nature, such as the
value of one of the higher faculties,
Il sound political economy, wise
Jurisprudence, the vitality of the
blood, the circulation of the blood,
the weighting of the atmosphere
and of water, the bars of the sea,
the accuracy of the revolution of
the earth on its axis, r%efractlon of
light, the inaccessibility of the
poles of the earth, evaporation of
water and the falling of rain, cur
rents of air from the poles to the
equator and back, elias flying plants
by their seeds, Jobs mineralOgy
and geology, the band between the
sun and the moon; the centre Of
the universe in the Pleiades, giving
Il beginning to nature, all indefi-
mite beginning; the order of crea-
ton, light before the sun, which
Noltaire ridiculed; a period of mist,
then water, then dry land, then an
imals; the reduction Of initial i'm
pulses as Swallowed forth by the
weaker words used in letting the
sea and the earth bring forth the
ultimate end when all things shall
"a old as doth a garment. In
the concluding paragraphs the
speaker gathered comfort out OF
the two books, the Bible and Ma
ture, showing the many chambers
God as "a father has prepared fol
the people. Agassiz's theory OF
advancing types was used as a sug-
geStion as to what the next stage
of life would be when we shall bt
like the Son of God.