V Religion and Science

reference to Whitehead: ‘He is a heroic thinker who tries to beard the lions of Intellectualism, Materialism and Positivism in their own bristling den’ (p. 84). Morton White may have said this only about Whitehead, but this applies to all the scientists mentioned above. This philosophical question as to the final reality being mind or matter is actually concerned with the question of whether the universe has developed independently and spontaneously through some material process, or whether there is a non-material being who has created it at will. If we accepted the former proposition, it would be just like saying that, in the last analysis, a machine is simply a fortuitous compound of iron and petrol. That is to say, that the machine started off as iron and petrol, but owing to some blind, automatic process, it took on the form of a machine. All a pure accident! A machine, as we all know, is the product of an engineer’s mind. That mind, quite distinct from the matter, existed before the machine. It conceived it, designed it, and brought it into being. The machine’s existence was clearly consequent upon the exercise of mind and will. In determining the nature of the mind, differences can be found among those who believe the mind to be the final reality, just as believers in God have diverse concepts of God. Even so, the conclusion arrived at by academic study that the final underlying reality of the universe is mind, testifies by its very nature to the truth of religion and amounts to a rejection of atheism. ‘The truly significant change in modern science is not to be found in its increased powers to aid man’s progress, but in the change in its metaphysical foundations.’2 The best exposition of this viewpoint is to be found in The Mysterious Universe, by Sir James Jeans. By pure scientific argument, the writer has come to the conclusion that in the light of modern physics, ‘The universe cannot admit of material representation, and the reason, I think, is that it has become a mere mental concept.’ He later goes on to say, “If the universe is a universe of thought, then its creation must have been an act of thought.” (pp. 133-134)