Religion and Science
7. The ‘Religion’ of the Modern Age
~ 123 ~
Such a synthesis cannot be obtained by a
simple, round table conference of the
specialists. It requires the efforts of one man,
not merely those of a group. A work of art has
never been produced by a committee of
artists, nor a great discovery made by a
committee of scholars. The syntheses needed
for the progress of our knowledge of man
should be elaborated in a single brain (p. 55).
But to find a man who is truly capable of producing
such a synthesis of all knowledge is almost
impossible under present circumstances. This is
because man suffers the temporal limitations of the
normal human life span, the laws governing which
are inexorable. No method ever having been
discovered to stay the advent of old age and death,
the time available for such work is barely sufficient
to master one of the scientific fields in its entirety,
far less all of the fields which have been explored
till today.
The writer has suggested a period of 25 years as
being sufficient to master all of the fields that it
would be necessary to study. This is, indeed, a
