The Alliance between Science and Religion
- Science and religion are the two levers of human intelligence: one reveals the laws of the material world, and
the other the laws of the moral world. But neither, having the same principle, which is God, can contradict the other. If they were to negate each other, one would necessarily be wrong and the other right, because God could not possibly be willing to destroy God’s own work. The incompatibility that is thought to exist between these two orders of ideas arises from an erroneous observation and an excess of exclusivity on one side and the other. This has resulted in a conflict from which both disbelief and intolerance have emerged. The time has come in which Christ’s teachings must receive their completion; in which the veil, cast intentionally over some parts of these teachings, must be lifted; in which science ceases to be exclusively materialistic and takes into account the spiritual element; and in which religion ceases to misinterpret the organic and immutable laws of matter. These two forces, supporting each other and advancing together, will lend each other mutual support. Then religion, no longer having to endure the discredit of science, will acquire unshakable power because it will be in accord with reason and will no longer be able to oppose the irresistible logic of the facts. Science and religion were unable to understand each other until today, because, each examining matters from its own exclusive point of view, they mutually rejected each other. Something was needed to fill the gap that separated them, a mark of union that would bring them close to each other. This mark of union resided
in the knowledge of the laws that govern the spirit world and its relations with the corporeal, laws as immutable as those governing the movement of the heavenly bodies and the existence of beings. Once they were proven by experience, these relations caused a new light to dawn: faith turned toward reason, reason found nothing illogical in faith and materialism was defeated. But in this, as in everything else, there are persons who remain behind until they are swept along by the movement of the whole, which crushes them if they try to resist it instead of surrendering to it. It is a whole moral revolution that is occurring at this time and is molding people’s spirits. After being prepared for over more than eighteen centuries, this revolution is nearing its fulfillment, and it will mark a new era for humankind. The consequences of this revolution are easy to foresee; as for social relations, it must bring inevitable changes that
no person has the power to oppose because they are in the designs of God and result from the law of progress, which is a law of God.