Religion Without Christ

Extract

The period during which the scientific attitude of mind was linked with materialism is past : in every field of study, physics, botany, astronomy, psychology, the foremost experts have reached the conclusion that the neat mechanism of a previous generation is no longer tenable. It takes time, of course, for these conclusions to become known; but the result is that the scientific mind no longer finds religion intolerable. On the contrary, religion is seen as a necessity : as something which is demanded by the very limitations of science itself. This has, of course, been the consistent assertion of the Christian Church ; but it would certainly be wrong to suppose that the change of attitude in an important part of the scientific world means that there is any kind of movement back to traditional religious beliefs. There is, indeed, a movement towards religion; but traditional Christianity is distinguished from other religions by all that is meant by the word ‘supernatural’ and ‘revealed’; and neither of these two words commends itself, it would seem, to the scientist. What actually seems to be taking place is an attempt to get behind religious formulations to something upon which those formulations depend : no need is felt for creeds and dogmas; religion is something individual, an attitude of mind, a response of the personality.