The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1922-11-10
RELIGION AND IT'S
PLACE IN SCIENCE
Subject Is Discussed By
Expert Engineer ,
SERMON FROM LAYMAN
Speaker Declares There Can Be
No Scientific Foundation
Of Religion
ASSOCIATED Pres, Dispatch

ASSOCIATED Press Dispatch.J
Schenectady, November 6.-Science
and religion, regarded as increas-
ingly antagonistic. are not necessari-
ly incompatible but are different and
unrelated activities or the human
mind, said DR.. Charles p. Steinmetz,
consulting engineer OF the General
Electric Company, in an address
prepared for delivery yesterday in
All Souls Church at the annual Lay
mems Sunday of the Schenectady
Chapter of the Unitarian Laymen's
League.
Speaking of The Place of Reli-
gion in Modern Scientific Civiliza.
uon," DR.. Steinmetz declared that
there could be no scientific founda
ton of religion, but the belief must
always remain the foundation of re-
igion. The negative answer of
science, he insisted, is not conclu
sive on the question of infnity in
time and space, Immortality, God,
etc, and the question is still as open
as it ever was. DR.. Steinmetz said in
part:
Religion may be defined as deal
ing with the relations Of man to
superior entities, usually conceived
as individuals, that is, a person God
or personal Gods. Science deals with
the conclusions derived by the laws
of logic from our sense perceptions.
Our civilization is an engineering
civilization, and the prosperous life
of the large populations which our
earth now supports has become pos
sible only by the work OF the engin-
Ger Engineering, however, is the ap-
plication of science to the service of
man, and so. today science is the
foundation not only of our prosperi
", but of our very existence, and
thus necessarily has become the
dominating power IN our human So
ciety.
Antaaonism On Increase
There has grown up an increas-
ing antagonism between science and
religion. making the two incompati-
BILE with each other.
"Ou knowledge of the superior en-
titles. with which historic religion
deals. has been derived by expert
ence and by Revelation.
Undoubtedly experience led to the
first conception Of superior beings,
or Gods; the forces of nature per
sonified; the experiences in dreams;
the orderly progress of natures.
which seemed to imply manager Of
the universe. With our increasing
knowledge, this became less and less
satisfactory. For instance, the terror
of the thunderstorm led primitive
man to the conception of a Supreme
Being, whose attribute was the thun-
derbolt. Both when Franklin brought
the lightning from the clouds and
showed IL TO be mere electric
spark; when we learned to make the
lightning harmless by the lightning
-
electricity to do our work, naturally
our reverence for the thrower of the
thunder bolt decayed. So the gods Of
experience vanished.
I'm the realm Of science, all at
tempts to find any evidence OF su-
pernatural beings, OF metaphysical
conceptions, as God, Immortality, in
finity, etc, have failed, and with the
rise of science the field Of such con-
ceptions has steadily narrowed un-
til, if we are honest, we must con-
fess that in science there exists no
God, no immortality, no soul or
mind as distinct from the body; but
scientifically God and Immortality
are illogical conceptions. That Is,
science had inevitably to become ath
eistic-
There remained only Revelation
as the foundation of the historical
conception of religion. But is there
any difference between the dream"
of prehistoric man, in which he sees
wonderful things, and the 'Revela-
Moses or other founders of religions,
all contradicting each other.
Thus there is no evidence OUT
side of science for God, Immortality
and similar conceptions, and there Is
evidence against these conceptions
in science, and science has justified
its methods and conclusions by the
work it has accomplished.
Physical Science Conceptions
But it is very hard for man to get
along without belief in these con-
ceptions. We may get along without
God, but not without Immortality.
Our self concait dIslikes to place so
little value on ourselves, our know
ledge, skill, experience, in short our
ego, to concede that all this is mere
Iy a function Of the bfochemical
process of life, which utterly ceases
and vanished with the disintegration
of the protoplasm OF our body by
death.
The conceptions of physical
science are incompatible with the
metaphysical conceptions OF God,
immortality, infinity, etc. But are the
conceptions of science really final
and all embracing, or are they limit
ed also, holding within certain range
only, and not beyond this! Science
derives its conclusions by the laws
of logic from OUT sense perceptions.
Thus il does not deal with the real
world, of which We know nothing,
but with the world as it appears to
our senses. But are there no limita-
lions to our sense perceptions,
which limit the validity OF the con
illusions we derive from them?
"An our sense perceptions are lin
tied by, and attached to the concep-
lions of time and space. Kant, the
greatest and most critical OF all phil :
osophers, denies that time and space
are the product of experience, but
shows them to be categories; con
ceotions in which our mind clothes
the sense perceptions. Modern ply
sizes has come to the same conclu-
sion in the relatively theory, that
absolute space and absolute time
:. nave no existence, but time and space
Z eTisf only as far as things or events
All them, that is, are forms OF sense
perception. - "a.
"Still greater and more pertinent
60 another limitation Of our sense
nerceptions; our senses can per-
ceive only finite things, but cannot
nerceiye the infinite. No reasoning
from any foundation can put any
thing into the conclusions which 10
mot Contained in the foundations, and
,I.us NTH our sense perceptionS I'm