Evening star., 1925-01-04
BY HAROLD X. PHILIPS.
this generation destined to wit
ness the millennium of an armistice
or perhaps complete peace, between

II this generation destined to wit
ness the millennium of an armistice
or perhaps complete peace, between
Il science and religion?
Back of the brief announcements
IN the news columns last Friday that
Mlchael Pupin, one of the worlds fore
most physicists, had been elected presi-
oent or the American Association for
the Advancement of Science lie some
highly significant facts that tend to
make such reconciliation quite within
the realm of a probable possibility
The past year has seen some definite
steps on the part of leading churchmen
to depart from ancient policies of blind
prejudice, and in return science in
America has frankly demonstrated its
desire to correct the general misappre-
hension that 1t is concerned only with
material things, cold facts" and has no
| concern for the countrys spiritual well
fare.
Vehement denial of such an erroneous
Idea has already been made many times
by DR.. Pupin, and when the American
Association for the Advancement of
| Science summoned him to it's leadership
| II Is known that his broad views on the
controversy with religion welded tre-
mendous influence in his ultimate selec-
| ton by unanimous vote.
Public to BE shown Goal.
When the American Association puts
| into operation its announced plan for a
| widespread campaign to reveal the dis
coveries of science and discover new
| fields for research, one of its most i'm
portant phases will be to show the pub
! lie the true goal toward which science
| is striving-to overcome uninformed
| prejudice.
! DR.. Pupin was born in peasant home
! in Idvor. a tiny hamlet on the old
| frontier of Austria, and his whole early
| life was spent in an atmosphere of in
] tense religion. In the so years since he
| came to America as an immigrant, with
cents in his pocket he has learned
| much. but he has never denied the exist
ence of a divine power. and in his auto
| biograp ply, discussing the. controversy
! between science and religion. made this
! frank statement:
"All changeable things are subject to
| the play of evolution, and are mortal,
| from the tiny flower in the field to the
| awe-inspiring cloud figure in the heavens
| which is called the nebula of Orion. But
| the laws which the stars and the
| planets obey in their paths through the
heavens never change nor grow old,
| they are immutab BILE, they are immortal.
The elements of the microcosm, the
| electrons in the atom, are as far as we
| know immutable and immortal, because
! man knows no natural process by which
! the electrons and the laws they obey can
| ever be changed. They are not the prod
uct of any natural process of evolution
known to man. To discover the i'm
mutable laws which this substantial, this
! immutable foundation of the universe,
| obeys is the highest aim of scientific re-
! search.
May Never Pierce Veil.
! THE existence of these eternally un-
| changeabIe things brings US face to face
! with a power which is the eternally i'm
movable background of all physical
| phenomena. We feel intuitively that
science will never penetrate the mys-
j teries beyond it, but our faith encour-
ages us in the belief that there behind
! the impenetrable veil of this eternal
background is the throne of a divine
power, the soul of the physical world,
! the activity of which we contemplate in
our research of physical phenomena.
II am sure that many local mem
bers of the National Research Coun-
ell believe that scientific research
will bring us closer to this divinity
than any theology invented by man
! ever did. The cultivation of this be-
| lief is certainly one of the ideals OF
American science, represented by the
men who are associated in the Ma
| tional Research Council. In the face
| of this ideal. there certainly. cannot
be any conflict between science and
religion
/ The National Research Council To
/ which Dr. Pupin referred is the or
I ganization which was created out of
! the National Academy of Sciences
! during the war and now occupies
part of the academy building facing
the Mall near the Lincoln Memorial
! DIR. Pupin paid the council high trib-
ute as IAN organization which repre-
sents the mobilized scientific intellect
of the United States"
Does Not Admit Conflict.
DR.. Pupin takes sharp exception to
persons who would unfeelingly refer
| to the things of science as cold