Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
Scientists extracting radium. Can God be discovered by the scientific process?
Putting God in the Test Tube
Among other wonders, science makes bold to create a modernized object of worship
HIS 1s the age of the laboratory, the x-ray
and the test tube. Every subject, whether
material, social, or spiritual, is subjected
to their keen analysis. As a result, our
world and the universe have been wonder-
fully transformed. We ate now able to
analyze the stars, to study the depths of the ocean,
to span the world in a few seconds of time, to
produce toxins and antitoxins that prevent or cure
some of the worst diseases with which the human
race has been afflicted. These and many other con-
tributions have of course exerted a powerful influence
on our actions and reactions, our ideas, and our
thought processes. We begin to wonder if the whole
structure of human knowledge, the whole foundation
of human achievement, as well as the hope of a
future existence, are to crumble into nothingness.
And we begin to doubt the value of any and all things
that cannot be seen, weighed, handled, or demon-
strated.
During the past few years the Bible and its author
have been brought more and more into the scientists’
workshop, and in general they have appeared to
suffer by the searching analysis applied to them.
Let it be understood at this point that the author
has no objection to any test that may be applied to
either the Book or its Author, so long as the same
principles are observed as are used in the analysis
of any other subject. He has explicit confidence in the
words of the great Hebrew scholar, Gamaliel: “If
this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to
PAGE TEN
By Guy H. Winslow
nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow
it.” Acts 5:34-40.
“But,” says one, ‘no one has ever seen God. We
do not know where He is, how large He is, what He
looks like. You show Him to me and I will believe
that He exists.” Now, let me ask one or two ques-
tions, using the same principle as above. Where is
the human mind? How large is it? How much does
it weigh? Did you ever see one? No? Nor have I.
You show me yours and I will believe that you have one.
Or, again, you show me your life and I will believe
that you are alive. Did you ever see integrity, love,
honor, gravitation, an influenza germ, a radio wave?
But who will deny that they exist?
Hence, we must conclude that the fact that we
cannot analyze God in a test tube is no proof of
His nonexistence. In fact, the great laws that make
all laboratory research possible and fruitful should
impress one with the fact of an omnipotent, omni-
present God in the universe. So much for this part
of our subject. Let us now turn to the Bible in its
relation to science.
There are, in general, three ideas regarding the
relation existing between the Bible and science.
First, there are the few who hold that scientific
knowledge is limited to that taught in the Bible; that
all science that is beyond what is found in the Bible
is not true science, since it is not in harmony with
the word of God.
THE WATCHMAN MAGAZINE