Religion & Science Books

I We live in and form part of a system of things of immense diversity and perplexity, which we call Nature; and it is a matter of the deepest interest to all of us that we should form just conceptions of the constitution of that system and of its past history. With relation to this universe, man is, in extent, little more than a mathematical point; in duration but a fleeting shadow; he is a mere reed... more...

PREFACE In venturing to prepare this little volume for the eyes of the reading public, I am fully aware of the difficulties of the subject and the inadequacy of the expressions I have been able to employ, but I have made the attempt at the request of those who have found consolation in some of the thoughts herein embodied; and the messages left by others before they passed away, embolden me to hope... more...

PREFACE. This is not so much a volume upon the Evidences of Christianity, as an examination of the Evidences of Infidelity. When the Infidel tells us that Christianity is false, and asks us to reject it, he is bound of course to provide us with something better and truer instead; under penalty of being considered a knave trying to swindle us out of our birthright, and laughed at as a fool, for... more...

FOREWORD The following pages have grown out of a paper, following the same outline more briefly, which was read before the Pastors’ Conference of the San Juaquin Valley Baptist Association, the largest association in the Northern California Baptist Convention. At the close of the reading a request for its publication was enthusiastically and unanimously voted. The author has since divided the paper... more...

I. I propose to consider, in a series of three papers, the influence of Science upon Religion. In doing this I shall seek to confine myself to the strictly rational aspect of the subject, without travelling into any matters of sentiment. Moreover, I shall aim at estimating in the first instance the kind and degree of influence which has been exerted by Science upon Religion in the past, and then go on... more...

My Dear Sir, This volume is chiefly taken up in answering, to the best of its author's knowledge and ability, the various questions which the old theology of Scotland has been asking for the last few years of the newest of the sciences. Will you pardon me the liberty I take in dedicating it to you? In compliance with the peculiar demand of the time, that what a man knows of science or of art he... more...

AUTHOR'S PREFACE The movement which received its impulse as well as its name from Darwin, seems to have recently passed its distinctest phase; but the more prominent points of opposition, religious, ethical, and scientific, which have been revealed through it, remain as sharply contrasted as before. The author of this book desires, in the first place, to be of service to such readers as feel the... more...

CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF SCIENCE. Religious condition of the Greeks in the fourth centurybefore Christ.—Their invasion of the Persian Empire bringsthem in contact with new aspects of Nature, and familiarizesthem with new religious systems.—The military,engineering, and scientific activity, stimulated by theMacedonian campaigns, leads to the establishment inAlexandria of an institute, the Museum,... more...

PREFATORY. I first read Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" in the library of my sainted uncle, John Schaller, at New Ulm, Minnesota, in 1892. I did not comprehend all of it then, a cause, to me, of considerable chagrin, for which I later found some consolation in the opinion of Dr. Frederick Lynch, who pronounces Darwin's epochal work "one of the two most difficult books in the... more...

LECTURE I. THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF SCIENTIFIC BELIEF. 'O Lord, how manifold are Thy works: in wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of Thy riches.' —Psalm civ. 24. Those who believe that the creation and government of the world are the work of a Being Whom it is their duty to love with all their hearts, Who loves them with a love beyond all other love, to Whom they look for... more...