Fosdick: science the new arbiter

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Meditation:
    Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
    —James 1:27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The men of faith might claim for their positions ancient tradition, practical usefulness, and spiritual desirability, but one query could prick all such bubbles: Is it scientific? That question has searched religion for contraband goods, stripped it of old superstitions, forced it to change its categories of thought and methods of work, and in general has so cowed and scared religion that many modern-minded believers... instinctively throw up their hands at the mere whisper of it... When a prominent scientist comes out strongly for religion, all the churches thank Heaven and take courage, as though it were the highest possible compliment to God to have Eddington believe in Him. Science has become the arbiter of this generation’s thought, until to call even a prophet and a seer ‘scientific’ is to cap the climax of praise.
    ... Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), As I see Religion, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1932, p. 123 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, renew my mind, that I may discard the world’s standards for Yours. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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