History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science

History of the Conflict Between
Religion and Science

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Title: History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science

Author: John William Draper
Release Date: February, 1998 [EBook #1185] [This file was first
posted on February 15, 2003] [Note: The original 1998 posting was
misfiled, hence the odd dates.]
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OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN RELIGION AND SCIENCE ***

History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science
By John William Draper
This eBook was prepared by Charles Keller with OmniPage
Professional OCR software

HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN RELIGION AND
SCIENCE
BY JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, M. D., LL. D. PROFESSOR IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, AUTHOR OF A TREATISE ON
HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, HISTORY OF THE INTELLECTUAL
DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPE, HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN
CIVIL WAR, AND OF MANY EXPERIMENTAL MEMOIRS ON
CHEMICAL AND OTHER SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS

PREFACE.
WHOEVER has had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the
mental condition of the intelligent classes in Europe and America, must
have perceived that there is a great and rapidly-increasing departure
from the public religious faith, and that, while among the more frank
this divergence is not concealed, there is a far more extensive and far
more dangerous secession, private and unacknowledged.

So wide-spread and so powerful is this secession, that it can neither be
treated with contempt nor with punishment. It cannot be extinguished
by derision, by vituperation, or by force. The time is rapidly
approaching when it will give rise to serious political results.
Ecclesiastical spirit no longer inspires the policy of the world. Military
fervor in behalf of faith has disappeared. Its only souvenirs are the
marble effigies of crusading knights, reposing in the silent crypts of
churches on their tombs.
That a crisis is impending is shown by the attitude of the great powers
toward the papacy. The papacy represents the ideas and aspirations of
two-thirds of the population of Europe. It insists on a political
supremacy in accordance with its claims to a divine origin and mission,
and a restoration of the mediaeval order of things, loudly declaring that
it will accept no reconciliation with modern civilization.
The antagonism we thus witness between Religion and Science is the
continuation of a struggle that commenced when Christianity began to
attain political power. A divine revelation must necessarily be
intolerant of contradiction; it must repudiate all improvement in itself,
and view with disdain that arising from the progressive intellectual
development of man. But our opinions on every subject are continually
liable to modification, from the irresistible advance of human
knowledge.
Can we exaggerate the importance of a contention in which every
thoughtful person must take part whether he will or not? In a matter so
solemn as that of religion, all men, whose temporal interests are not
involved in existing institutions, earnestly desire to find the truth. They
seek information as to the subjects in dispute, and as to the conduct of
the disputants.
The history of Science is not a mere record of isolated discoveries; it is
a narrative of the conflict of two contending powers, the expansive
force of the human intellect on one side, and the compression arising
from traditionary faith and human interests on the other.
No one has hitherto treated the subject from this point of view. Yet
from this point it presents itself to us as a living issue--in fact, as the
most important of all living issues.
A few years ago, it was the politic and therefore the proper course to
abstain from all allusion to this controversy, and to keep it as far as

possible in the background. The tranquillity of society depends so
much on the stability of its religious convictions, that no one can be
justified in wantonly disturbing them. But faith is in its nature