NO phase of modern thought, as reflected in current discussion, is more illuminating than the attempt to reconcile the teachings of the Bible with the unprecedented developments in so-called natural science, and to adjust these teachings to the present demands of society. Alarmed, it seems, by the extraordinary progress made in the realm of scientific discovery and the application of new inventions to human problems, religionists are striving to reconcile the Biblical teachings to these new conditions in the hope of lessening the tendency to skepticism and agnosticism which has become all too prevalent as the result of these discoveries.
On the part of those who would be defenders of the faith, it seems there is a determination to yield no more ground than is necessary; while on the part of the physical scientists is what amounts to a wholesale repudiation of religious teachings whenever these teachings conflict with what they are pleased to call "the advancement of science." Science to these votaries has come to be the god at whose altar they worship with a devotion lacking nothing in intensity, although it possess little of the essence of true worship.
Out of this conflict will undoubtedly emerge a clearer concept of religion, stripped of superstition and bigotry, and a better understanding, it is hoped, of what true Science is. Christian Scientists will recognize in this controversy a phase of the age-old conflict between Spirit and matter foretold by Jesus, to which Mrs. Eddy makes specific reference in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 226) as "the awful conflict." That she was not in doubt of the outcome of this conflict she graphically asserts on page 288 of Science and Health: "When the final physical and moral effects of Christian Science are fully apprehended, the conflict between truth and error, understanding and belief, Science and material sense, foreshadowed by the prophets and inaugurated by Jesus, will cease, and spiritual harmony reign."
