1856.] Science and the Bible. 631
ARTICLE VII. SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE. NUMBER II.
WITH FURTHER REMARKS ON " THE SIX DAYS OF CREATION " OF PROF. TAYLER
LEWIS.1
By James D. Dana, LL.D., Silliman Professor of Natural History, Yale College.
" Is religion, then,
so false to God as to avert its face from science ? Is the church
willing to declare a divorce of this holy marriage tie ? Can she afford
to renounce the external proofs of a God having sympathy with man ?
Dare she excommunicate science, and answer, at the judgment, for the
souls which are thus reluctantly compelled to infidelity ? We reject
the authority of the blind scribes and pharisees who have hidden
themselves from the light of Heaven under such a darkness of bigotry.
We claim our just rights and our share in the church. The man of
science is a man, and knows sin as much as other men, and equally with
other men he needs the salvation of the gospel. We acknowledge that the
revelations of the physical world are addressed to the head, and do not
minister to the wants of the heart; we acknowledge that science has no
authority to interfere with the Scriptures and perplex the holy writ
with forced and impossible constructions of language. This admission
does not derogate from the dignity of science; and we claim that the
sanctity of the Bible is equally undisturbed by the denial that it was
endowed with authority over the truths of physical science. But we,
nevertheless, as sons of men, claim our share in its messages of
forgiveness, and will not be hindered of our inheritance by the
unintelligible technicalities of sectarianism; as children, we kneel to
the church and implore its sustenance, and entreat the constant aid
and countenance of those great and good men who are its faithful
servants and its surest support, whose presence and cheering
1
Along with the work already mentioned, we here include the letter in
reply to our review published in the last number of this Journal, page
471.
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