CHRISTIANITY AND THE MECHANISTS

Abstract

WHY are writers who approach religious problems from the angle of the sciences so often haphazard in their reasoning, striding forward regardless of obstacles, the moment they quit the strictly scientific beat ? They are as reckless as the theologians who dabble in science, and with less excuse; for their scientific training should have taught them to be more careful. The book before us provokes this question. Not that it is lacking in interest or merit, at all events in its negative contentions. The author is a medical man conversant, both within his professional field and outside of it, with the opinions and needs of the public, especially of the younger generation. He knows how their outlook upon the larger problems of life has been prejudiced by uncritical acceptance of the dogmatic tradition of Victorian science, a tradition which still dominates popular thinking, despite the fact that recent developments in physics have gone far to undermine its dogmatism. The majority of the students in our secondary schools and universities still echo the outworn shibboleths and are convinced before their mindsare fully fledged that science has scotched religion. It is to such as these, and not to specialist readers, that the author addresses himself. Christianity and the Mechanists By Dr. W. Osborne Greenwood. Pp. 296. (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode (Publishers), Ltd., 1941.) 9s. net.