V Religion and Science

Religion and Science the words of A.V. Hills, himself a scientist: ‘I should be the last to claim that we, scientific men, are less liable to prejudice than other educated men.’5 Sir James Jeans underscores this when he says, ‘Our modern minds have, I think, a bias towards mechanical interpretation.’6 Now, in a world where prejudice holds sway, how can we hope that a concept will be accepted only because it has been proved academically? The often-repeated experiences of history show that man has all along been governed by his emotions rather than by his intellect, in spite of the fact that academically and logically, reason occupies the higher position. More often than not, reason has played into the hands of emotion. It has seldom happened that it has gained a positive control over the emotions. Indeed, the intellect has always coined arguments to support the emotional and thus tried to prove that emotional attitudes were rational. Man finds it a psychological necessity to cling to his emotional being, even at the cost of remaining blind to reality. We must remember, therefore, that we are not dealing with machines, which ought to respond to the mere flicking of a switch. What we have to address ourselves to is man, and man accepts something only when he himself is willing to do so. If he is not, no argument, however sound it may be, will convince him. Arguments are not, sad to say, electric switches. That man, with all his capacity for reasoning, should so seldom, himself, be amenable to reasoning, is perhaps the greatest tragedy of human history. 1. John Wilson, Philosophy and Religion, London, 1861, p. 36. 2. J.W.N. Sullivan, The Limitations of Science, pp. 138-50. 3. The Mysterious Universe, p. 122. 4. Ibid, pp. 136-38. 5. Quoted by A.N. Gilke in Faith for the Modern Man, p.l09. 6. The Mysterious Universe, p. 135.