Religion and Science
5. Religion and Science
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This is far from being all that there is to the matter.
The truth is that twentieth century science has lost
its ability to convince. Today, Newton has been
replaced by Einstein, and the theories of Planck and
Heisenberg have overthrown those of Laplace. Now
the anti-religionists, at least on an academic level,
can no longer claim that science has arrived at the
ultimate truth. Indeed, the theory of relativity and
the quantum theory have led scientists to the
conclusion that it is impossible in science to
separate the observer from the observed. This
means that we can see only certain external
manifestations of reality; we cannot apprehend it in
its essence. The revolution that has occurred in
science in the twentieth century has itself proved
the importance of religion from the scientific point
of view.
In his book, The
Limitations of Science,
J.N. Sullivan
states the case thus:
What is called the modern “revolution” in
science consists in the fact that the Newtonian
outlook, which dominated the scientific world
for nearly two hundred years, has been found
