Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-06-12
TEE INFLUENCE OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT
UPON CREEDs.

gians of the time to modify their creed so
that they may be more in accord with the
teachings of science, and cites in illustra-
ton a recent discussion at the Commence
ment Of the-Yale Theological Seminary,
concerning the need or expediency of
creed for the Congregational Church. This
discussion, says the Nation, brought out
very strongly the difficulty that both
q ministers and laymen feel in defining
'' their religions beliefs, and was rather
g remarkable as confession OF the trouble
g which the churches experience in hold
20 ing to any common standard Of ortho
doxy. Seven or eight leading Congre-
q gational theologians opposed the attempt
g to formulate a creed, ON various grounds
i" One thought the Church was not ready
g to say what it believed on number of
i" questions on which the advance of sci
Z" ence is in a measure pressing it to
" declare itself-such as evolution, the
" origin Of species, and the authenticity
+" OF the Pentateuch. Another preferred
"' to meet the difficulty by drawing up
6. list of things not believable. There was
"a general consensus, apparently, that
g the drafting of creed would lead to
" dissension, and also that no creed
81 could in our day last long. DR.. Bacon,
for instance, would revise the Congre-
"gational creed every ninth year. Presi-
''ident Porter would have creed for
leach church, to be settled every time it
received new pastor. Nobody seemed
g to think it possible to draft any creed
(which all the churches would accept. "
This is certainly remarkable condition of
things, but rightly considered it shows the
utter impracticab;lity OF eifecting that re-
Cancellation between Theology and Science
which theologians who find it impossible to
deny scieneifc truths wish to think at
tainable. In the first place it is evident
that before men can reach standpoint
from which the constant modification of
creeds seems permissible, they must have
left the theological habit of thought be-
hind, and must have adopted a scientific
habit OF thought. But such change in
the mental attitude is of necessity fatal TO
the preservation of any beliefs which do not
rest on experience and reason. In fact
the only hope of Theology lies in obstinate
adherence to all its old methods and max
inns. Let it rely altogether upon blind
faith, and preach belief in opposi-
ton to reason as duty, and
it viii for long time appeal
TO certain imperfectly developed
class Of minds which find it necessary to
lean against something continually, and
which derive as much support from one
kind Of fetishism as from another. So long
as this class of minds constitutes large
percentage OF humanity, 50 long will the
old-fashionsd Theology retain hold upon
society. Of course the inevitable tendency
must be Tor it to represent more and more
the least intelligent clements, since the dis
semination of scientific education must pro
duce a separation between those who are
capable of logical reasoning and those who
are not. TIE latter VIII naturally become
the sole remaining support of Theology,
while the former viii join the ranks of
scientific inquiry. And for this reason the
only theological school whose literature
possesses any present strength, is, para
doxically enough, the school which con-
temptuously rejects all scientific diff
culties, which accepts the plenary in
spiration of the Bible, WHICH boggles at
no feat of credulity, however arduous,
and which in fact puts reason out
of court peremptorily, and reposes al
together on faith. It is because the
Church of Rome clings so determinedly
to her old dogmas and legends, because
she replies to every scientific advance with
some fresh homage to superstition, because
her Councils and doctors call Aquinas to
their defense against Haeckel because
they stand prepared even at this day rather
to deny the sphericity of the earth than to
abandon ground once taken up, that the
feeble-minded, the perplexed, the strife
wearied, the confused, the timid, all find
in that Church comfort and finality of
assurance such as no form of Professionalism
any longer affords. 1t is true that none
but inferior or defective intelligences are
likely to experience tae need of such 4
refuge, but it is also true that inferior and
defective intelligences are commoner than
any ether kind, and that therefore the
fed Of old-fashioncd Theology is by no
means circamscri5ed.