History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science

tions of the governm

By Law.-The former

h of the introduc

the laws that pre

are denounced by p

anical philosophy a

he fundamental laws

movements of the c

ar system is gover

hel extends that

lar hypothesis.-Th

i

ntrol of law in the

development of t

se by Evolution,

s exhibited by the

and in the case o

of this view by s

rch

ernment of the world. It may be by incessant divine

that act shall be. In the pre Christian (Roman) religion, the grand office of the priesthood was the discovery of future events by oracles, omens, or an inspection of the entrails of animals, and by the offering of sacrifices to propitiate the

t seemed to depreciate their dignity, to lessen their importance. To them there was something shocking in a Go

their proper courses; the measured march of the wandering planets in the sky-what are all these, and a thousand such, but manifestations of an orderly and unchanging procession of events? The faith of early observers in this interpretation may perhaps have been

tion of natural laws. The scientific philosopher affirms that the condition of the world at any given moment is the direct result of its condition in

hypothesis if he found that the calculations did not accord with the observations. The incredible labor he had undergone (he says, "I considered, and I computed, until I almost went mad") was at length rewarded, and in 1609 he published his book, "On the Motions of the Planet Mars." In this he had attempted to reconcile the movements of that planet to the hypothesis of eccentrics and epicycles, but eventually discovered that the orbit of a planet is not a circle but an ellipse, the sun being in one of the foci, and that the areas swept over by a line drawn from the planet to the sun are proportional to the times. These constitute what are

y contrary to the Holy Scriptures, prohibited Kepler's "Epitome" of that system. It was on this occasion that Kepler submitted his celebrated remonstrance: "Eighty years have elapsed during which the doctrines of Copernicus regarding the movement of the earth and the immobility of the sun have been promulgated without hinderance

ach planet is the seat of an intelligent principle, and that there is a relation between the magnitudes of the orbits of the five principal planets and the five regular solids of geometry. At first he inclined to believe that the orbit of Mars is oval, nor was it until after a wearisome study that he detected the grand truth, its elliptical form. An idea of the incorr

cle-that the earth attracts a stone more than the stone attracts the earth, and that bodies move to each other in proportion to their masses; that the earth would ascend to the moon one-fifty-fourth of t

omy is obviously divis

ion of the apparent motio

particularly of the laws of the planetary revolutions;

ment of the causes of those la

opment of the Dynamical branch of mechanics, which had been in a stag

its application to physical inquiries. He contemptuously rejected the Copernican system, alleging absurd objections to it. While Galileo was on the brink of his great telescopic discoveries, Bacon was publishing doubts as to the utility of instruments in scientifi

re at Milan, and one in Paris, carried there by Napoleon. After an interval of about seventy years, Da Vinci was followed by the Dutch engine

ishment of the three fundamental laws o

establishment of these l

rbing forces. A clear perception of this fundamental principle is essential to a comprehension of the elementary facts of physical astronomy. Since all the motions that we witness taking place on the surface of the earth soon come to an end, we are led to infer that rest is the natural condition of things. We have made, then, a very great advance when we have become sati

mouth of a cannon, it falls to the ground in a certain interval of time through the influence of gravity upon it. If, then, it be fired from the cannon, though now it may be projected some tho

uld be accounted for by the laws of Galileo. Borelli, treating of the motions of Jupiter's satellites, shows how a circular movement may arise

so in the intellectual development of man. It is marked by the public

or, and that Kepler's laws might all have been predicted-the elliptic motions-the described areas the relation of the times and distances. As we have seen, Newton's contemporaries had perceived how circular motions cou

makes her revolve in her orbit round the earth. It was easy to compute, on the principle of the law of inverse squares, whether the earth's attraction was sufficient to produce the observed effect. Employing the measures of the size of the earth accessible at the time, Newton found that the moon's deflection was only thirteen feet in a minute; whereas, if his hypothesis of gravitation were true, it should be fifteen feet. But in 1669 Picard, as we have seen, executed the measurement of a degree more carefully than had previously been done; this changed the estimate of the magnitude of the earth, and, therefore, of the di

planetary masses on one another. Knowing the masses and the distances, these disturbances may be computed. Later astronomers have even succeeded with the inverse problem, that is, knowing the

the movements of the celestial bodies, and insisted that scientific theori

d as opposed to providential intervention. The world was regarded as the theatre in which the divine will was daily displayed; it was considered derogatory to the majesty of God that that will should be fettered in any way. The power of the clergy was chiefly manifested in the influence the were alleged to possess in chang

was no power to express a condemnation of Newton's works, and among the clergy there was no disposition to give themselves any concern about the matter. At first the attention of the Protestant was engrossed by the movements of his great enemy the Catholic, and when that source of d

dogmas that these persons were quarreling about. It not only accepted the heliocentric theory and the laws discovered by Kepler, but it proved that, no matter what might be the weight of opposin

interrupted by providential interventions, but is under the government o

lements of the elliptic orbit of the double star zeta of the Great Bear were determined by Savary, its period being fifty-eight and one-quarter years; those of another, sigma Coronae, were determined by Hind, its period being more than seven hundred and thirty-six years. The orbital movement of these double suns in

existence by God, and that he has then imposed upon them by his arbitrary will laws

veral systems came into existence not by such an

y that they are nearly circles. All the planets move in the same direction and nearly in the same plane. The movements of the satellites are in the same direction as those

Is it not plain that there must have been a common tie among all these b

accounted for. We see why the outer planets and satellites are larger than the interior ones; why the larger planets rotate rapidly, and the small ones slowly; why of the satellites the outer planets have more, the inner fewer. We are furnished with indications of the time of revolution

uliarities have been noted; they ar

as a matter of necessity. Is there not, however, a most serious objection

ere is any solid evidence for admittin

s pale, gleaming patches of light, a few of which are large enough to be visible to the naked eye. Of these, many may be resolved by a suffic

the diameter of their object mirror or lens, their defining power depends on the exquisite correctness of their optical surfaces. Grand instruments may possess the former quality in perfection by reason of their size, but the latter very imperfectly,

, has neither dark nor bright lines. Fraunhofer had previously made known that the spectrum of ignited gases is discontinuous. Here, then, is the means of determining whether the light emitted by a

ion in the case of a nebula in the cons

y nebulae examined, nineteen give discontinuous

firm basis. In such a nebular mass, cooling by radiation is a necessary incident, and condensation and rotation the inevitable results. There must be a separation of rings all lying in one plane, a generation of planets and satellites

are constrained to extend our views of the dominion of law, and to recognize its agency in

thing profoundly impious in this? Are we not ex

, and becomes darker and denser, until it obscures a large portion of the heavens. It throws itself into fantastic shapes, it gathers a glory

ign optical reasons for the brightness or blackness of the cloud; we explain, on mechanical principles, its drifting before the wind; for its disappearance we account on the principles of chemistry. It never occurs to us to invoke t

there be a multiplicity of worlds in infinite space, there is also a succession of worlds in infinite time. As one after another cloud replaces cloud in the skies, so this starry system, the univers

anscendently magnificent the scene! The vast transformations, the condensations of a fiery mist into worlds, might seem worthy of the immediate presence, the supervision of God; here, at our distant station, where millions of miles are inappreciable to our eyes, and suns seem no bigger than motes in the air, that nebula is more insignificant than the faintest cloud. Galileo, in his description of the constellation of Orion, did not think it worth while so much as to mention it. The most rigorous theologian of those days would have seen nothing to blame in i

rventions, or to the continuous operation of unfailing law? The aspect of Nature perpetually varies under our eyes, still more grandly and strikingly has it altered in geological times. But the laws guiding those changes never ex

he remote past very much higher than it is now. A decline so slow as to be imperceptible at short intervals,

ula of Newton, nor that of Dulong and Petit, may apply. It signifies nothing that periods of partial decline, glacial periods, or others of temporary elevation, have been intercalated; it signifies nothing whether these variations may have arisen from topogra

of her day must have lessened, her surface must have collapsed, and fractures taken place along the lines of least resistance; the density of the sea must have increased, its volume must h

e not in a discontinuous but in an orderly manner, since the master-fact, the d

t to these inevitable mutations; living

long as the environment in which it is placed remains unchanged. Should an alter

he environment is more sudden; modification or transfor

nger such as they once were; since the distribution of the land and the ocean and all manner of physical conditions have varied; since there have been such grand changes in the envi

ations, have taken place, how copio

agency was itself following a mathematical law, these

by the operation of immutable law-not determined by discontinuous, disconnected, arbitrary interventions of God. They

upt appearance, transfo

It has its place in that vast, orderly concourse which has successively risen in the past, has introduced the present, and is preparing the way for a predestined future. From point to point in this vast pr

under an imperfect form in the midst of other forms, of which the time is nearly complete, and which are passing into extinction. By degrees, one species after a

nly make its appearance without premonition in those periods. Far back, in the Secondary, we find it under imperfect fo

way, the dim form of a new one emerging, which gradually gains strength, reaches its culmination, and then melts away in some other that is displacing it, so reptile-

n the change; it surrendered a large part of its carbonic acid, and the limestone hitherto held in solution by it was deposited in the solid form. For every equivalent of carbon buried in the earth, there was an equivalent of carbonate of lime separated from the sea-not necessarily in an amorphous condition, most frequently under an organic form. The sunshine kept up its work day by day, but there were demanded myriads of days for the wo

efer the reader to Chapters I, II., VII, of the second boo

by providential interventions, abruptly

st important, case that can be considered. Do human societies, in their historic career, exhibit the marks of a predetermi

man, parts never spring from nothing, but are evolved

nutrition changed; but as yet he could see nothing, hear nothing, notice nothing. By degrees conscious existence was assumed; he became aware that there is an external world. In due time organs adapted to another change of food, the teeth, appeared, and a change of food ensued. He then passed through the stages of childhood and youth, his bodily form developing, and with it his intellectual powers. At about fifteen years, in consequence of the evolution which special parts of his system had attained, his moral character changed. New ideas, new passions, influenced him. And that that was the cause

of life? or shall we not rather believe that the countless myriads of human beings who

rein a relation like that which the particles of the body maintain to the body itself. Th

e differs in no particular from individual, except in this, that it is spread over a longer span, but no nation can escape its inevitable term. Each, if i

under a reign of law, we are justified in inferring that the course of nations, and indeed the progress of humanity, does not take place in a chance or random way, that supern

o some of the great philosophers, statesmen, generals, and emperors of Rome; a system which excluded chance from every thing, and asserted the direction of all events by irresistible necessity, to the promotion of perfect good; a system of earnestness, sternness, a

ntions. These show that the supplications of holy men have often arrested the course of Nature-if, indeed, there be any such course; that images and pictures have worked wonders; that bones, hairs, and other sacre

s proof of an asserted fact in an inex

r individual life that we instinctively doubt the occurrence of the supernatural in that of our neighbor. The intelligent man knows well that, for his personal behoof, the course of Nature has never been checked; for him no miracle has ever been worked; he attributes justly every event of

of many ages, were again emerging into prominence the ideas of the Basilidians wad Valentinians, Christian sects of the second century, whose Gnostical views led to the engraftment of the great doctrine of the Trinity upon Christianity. They asserted that all the actions of men are necessary, that even faith is a natural gift, to which men are forcibly determined, and must therefore be saved, though their lives be ever so irregular. From the Supreme God all things proceeded. Thus, also, came into prominence the views which were developed by Augustine in his work, "De dono perseverantiae." These were:

aid, he hath constantly decreed by his council, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen out of mankind?" Is it

ynod of Dort decided in favor of this view. It condemned the remonstrants against it, and treated them with such severity, that many of them had t

w. In all Reformed Europe miracles ceased. But, with the cessation of shrine-cure, relic-cure, great pecuniary profits ended. Indeed, as is well known, it was the sale of indulge

this protest was far from being fully made by all the Reforming Churches. The evidence in behalf of government by law, which has of late years been offered by science

quoted by Lactantius, says: "One eternal and im