Religion and Science
7. The ‘Religion’ of the Modern Age
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quantitative grew still wider when Descartes
created the dualism of the body and the soul.
Then the manifestations of the mind became
inexplicable. The material was definitely
isolated from the spiritual. Organic structures
and physiological mechanisms assumed a far
greater reality than thought, pleasure, sorrow,
and beauty. This error switched civilization to
the road, which led science to triumph and
man to degradation.
In order to find again the right direction we
must return in thought to the men of the
Renaissance. We should reject the dualism of
Descartes. Mind will be replaced in matter.
The soul will no longer be distinct from the
body. As much importance should be given to
feelings as to thermodynamics.
It will be difficult to get rid of a doctrine
which, during more than three hundred years,
has dominated the intelligence of the
civilized. If scientific civilization should leave
the road that it has followed since the
Renaissance,
strange
events
would
