Religion and Science
3. The Mechanical Interpretation of the Universe
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were many invisible beings who were the
lords of this Universe. And that a number of
mini-gods were running the machine, under
one great God. Still, many hold such beliefs.
But in the academic (scientific) world this
concept has generally been abandoned. The
modernists of today subscribe to atheism
rather than polytheism. They think that the
universe is not an act of an intelligent being
but is rather the result of chance occurrence.
This principle of causation was found to
dominate the whole of animate nature (p. 13).
The concept which came to be known as, “the
mechanical interpretation of the universe” was thus
developed. It came to be ‘established’ that all events
occurred without any external intervention. The
entire process was material. Thus the whole
universe was seen as being tied to the chain of cause
and effect.
According to an article published in 1874 and
recorded in
Chambers Encyclopaedia,
Vol. II, p. 691,
philosophers of physics, chemists and biologists
were convinced that a particular cause invariably
