The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-07
This AGE MAY FIND OUT GOD.
,OrU cent? m Discoveries COL-
LEGE LECTt RER FORESEES.
souI Ma, he immortal, or Merely q Tran.
silent Chemical Reaction--Nlaybe We'll
KNOW IN 100 Years-unite ed States
Io,intr. VI Atheists Just Now.

Ai!-ert H Walker, the wellknown author
nv on patent law in this city. in lecture
laf,re the students of Michigan University
few DAYS ago attempted to foretell SOME
IT the advances which may be expected
in discovery. invention, philosophy and
religion during the twentieth century
His lecture at the time was reported
briefly. but it has occasoned considerable
newspaper comment Mr.. Walker, who Is
A on-resident lecturer at Cornell Uni
versi,v, az well as at Michigan, explained
some Of his views to SUN reporter yes
terday.
In the domain of invention" said he,
Il have no expectation that the twentieth
century will equal the nineteenth. though
il will he characterized by enormous de-
velopments, within the reach OF mechanical
and engineering skill, Of inventions which
the nineteenth century produced.
For example, there seems to be no
possibility that any mechanical inventions
will be made in the twentieth century COM
parable in Importance to the reaper and
the mower or the sewing machine And
the enormous development during the
nineteenth century of the whole science
and art of electricity including the electro
magnet the dynamo, the telegraph. the
telephone, the direct current motor for
railroads, the alternating current motor to
receive power from long distances, the
alternating current transformer and the
electric light cannot be expected to be
duplicated in any later age"
Mr, Walker thought that the twentieth
century might find the answer to the ques-
ton OF the immortality of the soul. "The
answer" he said, may be found to be in
the affirmative. through actual communica-
lion with departed souls, or it may be found
10 be in the negative, by scientific demon
.traton of tho correctness Of the hypothe-
sis that the spirit or the soul of man is only
name for the electrical and chemical
actions and reactions which occur in the
body
Two systems of philosophy, in Mr.. WAL
ker's opinion. will divide the attention
and ADHERENCE Of the people of the twentieth
Of Fpicurus, which long preceded the rise
OF Christianity and which underlies the
Declaration of Independence, and the
other is the philosophy of Christian Science. +"
He also, made the statement that the
majority Of men in this country are athe-
lists. define religion said he, las belief
in a God who cares, and atheism AS lack
OF belief in God who cares. These two
definitions, if correct, plainly dvlle all
men into two classes, and, according to
TINS classification most OF the men in the
United States are atheists. though many
of them pass under other designations.
THE conflict bet ween religion and athe-
ism has extended wherever civilization
has gone in any continent; sometimes,
and in some countries, with atheists in a
small minority. but now with atheists in
considerable majority, at least in the United
States. Religion has been based for many
centuries, in Europe and in America either
directly or indirectly upon the Hebrew
and the Christian Scriptures.
Those Scriptures have been found bv
Inulttudes of good men to furnish a suffi-
cient foundation for belief in God who
cares, but multitudes OF other good men,
including many OF the best scholars, deepest
thinkers, and kindest hearts, have come,
sooner or later. to the conclusion that
those ancient Scriptures do not. and cannot,
furnish convincing evidence of the exist
ence of God who cares. At the beginning
Of the twentieth century such an existence
is unknown to mankind in general however
firmly 1t may be believed, by large portions
Of mankind But the twentieth century
before it ends may be distinguished by the
At, ainment OF definite and generally salts
factory evidence showing whether there
is great Master Hand that sweeps over the
whole Of this deep harp of life. or whether
men are but pipes through whom the breath
OF Pan doth blow a momentary music"