Religion and Science
1. The Method of Argument
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to be brought forward by religious people to affirm
its truths. They should, in that case, be obliged to
admit to the reasonableness of religion. They can be
likened to a court in which the lawyer for the
prosecution may perform his duties, but in which
the accused may not engage the services of a lawyer
to defend himself. The presence of the official
lawyer shows that the government does agree in
principle that to deal with a case, a lawyer is
required, but when the culprit wishes to invoke the
same principle, the government turns against him
for fear that he may benefit from it.
If the operative principle is that it is only whatever
comes under our observation and within our
experience, which is factual, then the claim of the
anti-religionists will be justified only when they
have discovered directly through observation and
experiment the baselessness of religion. It will be
only when their observation has been so acute and
exhaustive that they are able to say with finality
that whatever exists in the world and outside it has
all been observed down to the smallest detail, and
without the smallest exception, that they will be
able to claim that there is neither God nor angels,
