Religion and Science
7. The ‘Religion’ of the Modern Age
~ 130 ~
which gave them birth persist. The
disappearance of God means a recasting of
religion, and a recasting of a fundamental
sort. It means the shouldering by man of ulti-
mate responsibilities which he had previously
pushed off on to God.
What are these responsibilities which man
must now assume?
First, responsibility for carrying on in face of
the world’s mystery and his own ignorance.
In previous ages that burden was shifted on to
divine inscrutability: “God moves in a
mysterious way.” — Now we lay it to the
account of our own ignorance, and face the
possibility that ignorance of ultimates may,
through the limitations of our nature, be
permanent (p. 133).
2
It is indeed contradictory that faced with this
admission, we still have the lingering hope that,
one day, we shall solve the problems of life —
when we have mastered the human sciences! It is
equally a contradiction that discoveries, which
should have alerted man to the necessity of
