I The Method of Argument

Religion and Science With little heed for logic, however, it has been assumed, conversely, that since the truths of religion cannot be materially demonstrated, the tenets of religion must, therefore, be dismissed as mere claims, matters of faith and belief—nothing more. Let us now go beyond this particular assumption, whose main criterion for acceptance is that of observability, to consider phenomena, which are either invisible or only partially observable. Take the statement that ‘the earth is round.’ When we look around us, there is nothing to indicate that this is so. It is a fact arrived at by inference and we had to wait till the twentieth century for pictures taken from spaceships and satellites to demonstrate its truth. Yet, long before this inference was confirmed by observation, mankind had accepted the ‘fact’ that the world was round. The statement that ‘the electron is invisible, but it exists,’ is quite another matter, for there is no way that its existence can be verified through observation even with the most sophisticated of modern devices. The electron is so tiny that it can neither be weighed nor seen through a microscope. Attempts to view it are considered even to alter its properties. Yet, in the world of science, the electron is a reality. Why? Because, although the electron itself is not visible, its effects are experienced, and for these, no other explanation is forthcoming except the existence of the electron. It is, therefore, on the basis of such indirect observation that science postulates its existence and, indeed, it is in this way that many of the concepts of nuclear science have gained general acceptance. Why then do scientists refuse to acknowledge that religious phenomena may be judged by the same intellectual procedures? Moreover, broader-based studies have shown that this third criterion is far from being the final one. The truths ‘established’ by these means are mostly, as scientists would put it, ‘technical truths’; whereas the magnitude and complexity of the universe goes far and beyond this. To be precise, the most significant truths begin from the point where the technical truths end. For instance, biological and physiological studies of the human body certainly reveal a large number of truths,