Religion and Science
7. The ‘Religion’ of the Modern Age
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human sciences such as makes it impossible for
man to penetrate to the depths of himself as
successfully as he can analyse the physical proper-
ties of matter. Nor is it true to say that insufficient
work has been done on the human sciences for this
to be possible. In actual fact, research on, and
perusal of the latter can be traced much further back
in time than those of the material sciences. Even so,
efforts in these fields have met with only partial
success. As Dr Carrel says, “A materialist and a
spiritualist accept the same definition of a crystal of
sodium chloride; but they do not agree with one
another upon that of the human being” (p. 17).
No research to date gives any indication that this
state of affairs is likely to change or improve. On
what basis then can man hope to discover the secret
of life in future? The writer has criticized those who
wish to apply to man information, which actually
relates to the material world:
The second law of thermodynamics, the law
of dissipation of free energy, indispensable at
the molecular level, is useless at the
psychological level, where the principles of
