Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-03
RELIGION AND INTELLIGENCE
BY DR.. FrankNCrane
tn HE, other day Bishop Manning,

tn HE other day Bishop Manning of New
York, In a sermon, spoke some clear
and needed words concerning his own
faith, words that might well apply to re-
ligion in general.
eve must make it clear he said chat
the truth revealed in Jesus Christ is in no
conflict with any truth made known to us by
science or scholarship. There is no reason
why religion should have any suspicious or
fear of science. There is nothing in the
Christian faith which conflicts with the sci
entific theory of evolution. We who preach
the gospel today must make it clear that our
religion is not barrier to our thinking, or
restriction imposed upon our minds"
Religion of some kind is a practical, disable
necessity for human beings. Rightly appre-
hended it makes men better citizens, better
business men, better scholars and better
poets. 1t makes women perform more easily
and perfectly their delicate mission in the
world.
But If religion is something that has to
shy at facts, and to cover its face at the dis
covery of every new truth, then, valuable as
it is, we shall have to give 1t up. For re-
lig1on is of use to us only as 1t enables us to
adjust ourselves to the truth.
To fear science is to fear facts Such an
attitude to an honest mind is intolerable.
Only those who are Hospitality minded to-
opinion and open discussion, can be said to
have pure faith.
Any kind of faith that wishes to use force
Of any kind to repress opinion, or smother up
facts is the kind of faith referred to in the
saying:
"The half-faith lights the fagot'
Persecution, intolerance, and repression
arise from lack of confidence that the truth
in religion is able to take care of itself
1t might be woll for the fearful and timid
souls who imagine that religion is in danger
Of being extinguished, to read the. famous
sentence Of John Milton's:
Though all the winds of doctrine were let
loose to play upon the earth. so Truth be in
the field we do ingloriously, by licensing and
prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let
her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew
Truth put to the worse in free and open
encounter?"
Those who have an intelligent faith have
it because they believe it is true and because
it works. Those whose faith rests upon any
other foundation have built their spiritual
houses upon the sand
H. L. Mencken calls Havelock Ellis "un-
doubtedIy the most civilized Engishman liv-
ing today" In the last book of Ellis. 1.-The
Dance of Life" speaking of religion he says
religion need not involve intellectual sui
eide. The operations Of reason, so far from
being fettered, can be effected with greater
freedom and on a larger scale Under favor
able conditions the religious process, indeed,
directly contributes to strengthen the scien-
tific attitude"
Again he gives us glimpse of that which
is destructive to both religion and science
when he says:
1.-THE burden of traditions, of conventions,
of castles, has too often proved fatal alike to
the manifestation of the religious impulse
and the scientific impulse"
Religion and science are not enemies of
each other. They are comrades, side by side
in the war against superstition and ig-
norance.