The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1879-12-18
The Scientific Recognition of God

If asked to deduce from the physical
interaction of the brain molecules the
least of the phenomena of sensation or
thought, we must acknowledge our help
lessnesS.
The mechanical philosopher, us such,
will never place state of consciousness
and group of molecules in the relation
of mover and moved. In passing from
the one to the other we meet a blank
which the logic of deduction is unable
to fill.
Physical considerations do not lead 10
the final explanation of all that we feel
and know.
We meet problem which trancends
any conceivable expansion of the powers
which we now possess.
We may think over the subject again
and again, but it eludes all intellectual
presentation.
Having thus exhausted physics and
reached its very rim a mighty mystery
still looms beyond us. We have, in fact,
made no step toward IRIS solution. We
try to soar in vacuum, when we en-
deavor to pass by logical deduction from
the one to the other.
Religious feeling is as much verify
as any other part of human conscious
ness, and against it, on its subjective
side, the waves of science beat III vain.
could see that his (Carlyle's) conten-
ton at bottom always was that the hui
man soul has claims and yearnings, which
physical science cannot satisfy.
1t seemed high time to him (Virchow)
to enter an energetic protest against
the attempts that are made to proclaim
the problems of research as actual facts
and the opinions Of scientists as estab-
lished science
We ought not, Virchow urges, to rep
resent our conjecture as n certainty nor
our hypothesis as a doctrine this is
inadmissable.
The burden Of my writings in this
the weakness of science rs an assertion
Of its strength.
If asked whether science has solved,
or is likely in our day to solve, the prob
lem of the universe, | must shake my
head in doubt. Behind and above and
around us the real mystery of the uni
verse lies unsolved, and, as far as we
are concerned, is incapable of solution.
| The problem of the connection of hody
and soul is as insoluble in it's modern
form as it was in the pre- scientific ages.
There ought to be clear distinction
made between silence in the state of
nv, othesis and science in the state of
fact.
And inasmucl as it is still in its by
pothetical stage, the ban of exclusion
ought to fall upon the theory OF evold-
ton.
After speaking of the theory of evolu
ton applied to the primitive condition
OF matte", as belonging to the d twi-
light Of conjecture the certainty of eX-
perlmental inquiry is here shut out.
Those who hold the doctrine of evolu-
ton are by no means ignorant of the UNI
certainty of their data, and they only
yield to it provisional assent
In reply to your question they will
frankly admit their inability to point to
any satisfactory experimental proof that
life can be developed save from demo-
strable antecedent life.
share Virchow's opinion, that the
theory of evolution in its complete form
involves the assumption that at some
period or other of the earths history
there occurred what would be now
called spontaneous generation. | agree
with HIM that the proofs of it are still
wanting. | hold with Virchow that the
failures have been lamentable, that the
doctrine is utterly discredited. Selection
from Prof. Tyndall's articles in Fort
nightly Review
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