Religion and Science
1. The Method of Argument
~ 8 ~
the statement that ‘the earth is round.’ When we
look around us, there is nothing to indicate that this
is so. It is a fact arrived at by inference and we had
to wait till the twentieth century for pictures taken
from spaceships and satellites to demonstrate its
truth. Yet, long before this inference was confirmed
by observation, mankind had accepted the ‘fact’
that the world was round.
The statement that ‘the electron is invisible, but it
exists,’ is quite another matter, for there is no way
that its existence can be verified through
observation even with the most sophisticated of
modern devices. The electron is so tiny that it can
neither be weighed nor seen through a microscope.
Attempts to view it are considered even to alter its
properties. Yet, in the world of science, the electron
is a reality. Why? Because, although the electron
itself is not visible, its effects are experienced, and
for these, no other explanation is forthcoming
except the existence of the electron. It is, therefore,
on the basis of such indirect observation that science
postulates its existence and, indeed, it is in this way
that many of the concepts of nuclear science have
gained general acceptance. Why then do scientists
