Abstract
THE conventional "conflict between religion and science" has concerned itself with questions which are not of themselves fundamental, and which are consequently incapable, as they stand, of any solution, as their perpetual recurrence indicates. The truth is, in Prof. H. Dingle's view, "that most of us have two different, and largely incompatible, attitudes towards what is essentially a homogeneous body of experience, and that we are, in the main, unconscious of this" ("Science and Religion." Modern Pamphlets on Religion, Life and Thought, No. 5. Union of Modern Free Churchmen, 92 Blake Road, London, N.11. 6d.). Both scientific and religious interpretations, in spite of their divergence from one another, are "attempts to interpret experience in rational terms". Their difference lies in their being concerned, in the main, with different kinds of experience, so that the interpretations which in either case seem most suitable are different. The scientific descriptions of the world are most appropriate for the particular limited fields of experience with which the respective sciences deal. The religious descriptions are those most appropriate for the different but also limited fields of experience with which religions deal. As knowledge grows, it may be expected that the two descriptions "will develop and ultimately coalesce into a single description capable of expressing all experience"; though we need not expect this ultimate description "to be identical with, or even greatly to resemble, any of the descriptions we can at present give"; and we shall therefore regard without concern any incompatibility between religious and scientific thought to-day. For we must recognize that the time has not yet come when we can construct a single comprehensive world-picture that will interpret all experience. We must be content with partial pictures, each limited to the experiences which provide its justification.
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Religion and Science. Nature 156, 232 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/156232a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/156232a0