VII The ‘Religion’ of the Modern Age

The ‘Religion’ of the Modern Ag on this topic written by a scientist using a purely scientific method and giving a detailed analysis of the facts hitherto discovered. In spite of the progress of science and technology, man is still beset by the problems of not having been able to bring either himself or his environment to a state of perfection. Nor is his ultimate understanding of these matters in any sense complete. The ensuing difficulties are the constant preoccupation of thinking men of the modern world. Adherents of religion think that this results from the neglect and consequent downfall of religion, while atheists and apostates take quite a different view. The latter attribute our difficulties to the fact that the progress of those sciences which deal with inanimate matter has not been equalled by that of the biological sciences,—which are still, indeed, at a rudimentary stage. They feel that we are inevitably suffering because of their failure to move forward. Dr. Carrel, therefore, advocates far more intensive research in this field. His book Man, The Unknown, is an attempt to discover this ‘man’ who is still ‘unknown’. He begins the chapter: ‘The Remaking of Man’ with these words: “Science which has transformed the material world, gives man the power of transforming himself” (p. 252). He goes on, “For the first time in history, humanity, helped by science, has become master of its destiny. It has unveiled some of the secret mechanisms of his life. It has shown him how to alter his emotion, how to mould his body and his soul on patterns born of his wishes. But will we be capable of using this knowledge of ourselves to our real advantage? We know that intellectual apathy, immorality, and criminality are not, in general, hereditary. The evil is not irreparable.” (pp. 252-3) Later he states that technology has constructed man, not according to the spirit of science, but according to erroneous metaphysical conceptions. We should break down the fences which have been erected between the properties of concrete objects, and between the different aspects of ourselves. The error responsible for our sufferings comes from a wrong interpretation of a genial idea of Galileo. Galileo, as is well known, distinguished the primary qualities