Portal:Royal Society of New Zealand

“ At best, we cannot see an inch beyond our noses; and it is ours, in all meekness and humility, to accept day by day our daily bread as He sees meet to reveal truth after truth to us. The one crucial test for us—Is it true? And if so, we are bound to accept and believe it; and we dare not, with loyalty to truth, compound with our consciences by saying this will produce such and such evils, and therefore we reject it. Another great principle which is lost sight of often is, the distinction between the spiritual and the physical. Science has to do with the latter, and the latter alone ”

“ In passing the general examination previous to studying for the Law, no science is taken, although its study has an eminently powerful effect in training the juridical faculties, consisting as it does almost wholly of induction and deduction, based on evidence in which prejudice must be allowed no play, and conscientiousness is the only possible means of ordinary progress. The mere facts of science alone, leaving out its value as a high-class mental training, are of enormous value in a large proportion of legal cases. ”

“ At any rate, in regard to the origin of life, there is nothing yet observed or taught as an ascertained truth that conflicts with our religious belief that God not only interfered with the stately march of continuity at the beginning for the creation of matter and force, but that again He interfered as the giver of the breath of life. It is true that specious theories have been put forth to account for the origin of life, but, with one exception, all are mere stepping-stones, helping the mind to take wider views, but do not touch the ultimate core and heart of the matter. ”

“ I say not one word about these refined speculations; they have their place and their use in dogmatic theology, treated as a science, but for the world at large it is not wise nor fair to mix these up with what is essentially different.
The great error which is over and over again committed is in thinking that we can so foresee the results of any discovery that we are justified in opposing it on account of its supposed consequences. We forget that we have nothing to do with consequences. ”

“ The mental constitution of that individual is certainly peculiar, who considers it an exalted conception of the Creator to regard Him as the great clockmaker and clock-mender of the universe, but a degraded conception to imagine Him as being capable of bringing about natural change in a way which utterly transcends our efforts, and which we are, even now, only beginning dimly to perceive and understand. ”

“ This world had a beginning, and therefore a Creator. Nor, however much the battle may have raged in times that are past over astronomy and geology, is there much difference of opinion now between science and theology as to the continuity of operations and the working of natural forces in the organic world: it is when we come to the organic that the existing differences appear. Biology is the great battle-ground of the present day ”

“ The antagonism which has been attempted to be raised between Science and Christianity is, I think, something more than a most unfortunate one; and perhaps even at the risk of nauseating you with a threadbare subject, I cannot do better than employ the few minutes still at my disposal in clearing up some misunderstandings, and pointing out that the view which has been attempted to be forced on this community, that "Evolution and Christianity are absolutely contradictory, and cannot live together," is an extreme view, and not the position taken by many of our best and wisest theologians at home. ”

“ Surely, then, if it can be shown, as I believe in my inmost heart that it can, that there is no true antagonism between science rightly understood, and religion truthfully interpreted, it is not the place of those who love both, to make a divorce between them; yea, "what God has joined, let no man put asunder." The conflict, I must say, is largely on the side of theology; for, as a rule (I state it as the result of my reading) , scientific men do not attack religion in their writings. Their business is with the observation of facts, and the elucidation of truth from these facts ”

“ This is the subject to which I should have liked to have devoted this address.
The alleged conflict of religion and science has been the theme of a thousand addresses, but it still remains an unexhausted subject, because its aspects change from generation to generation, and even in our time, from year to year, so that what is well said to-day is useless or stale to-morrow. I need not contend before such an audience as I speak to to-night, that there is no conflict between science and religion. ”

“ In this view, science has certainly no interest in proving the existence of a God; it leaves the Divine existence to look after itself, and confines itself to its proper work—the investigation of the laws of nature. But neither, on the other hand, is science, as such, impelled by any atheistic animus. ”

“ At the same time they utterly forget, or rather they are for the most part ignorant of the fact, that it is only as a consequence of the unwearied industry of the humbler votaries of natural history that the mass of knowledge has been accumulated which has formed, as it were, the raw material out of which the great biological theories now passing into general acceptance have been woven. The hunter for new forms may seem to be a mere curiosity hunter. ”

“ The High School at Dunedin, and Christ College School, both have able science teachers; but instead of their whole time being devoted to the preparation and delivery of lectures, and to tutorial work in science, they have the general class-work of a division entrusted to them, the science work being taken when they are liberated by their class being taken by other special masters. Position in the school being in no way dependent on their scientific knowledge, the boys think it is of no value, and look upon its study as a bore. ”

“ Captain G. Mair said that, having been born in New Zealand, and having been actively engaged in company with other New Zealanders, he could speak from experience on the subject, and he did not agree with the author. But to make a sound inference, he thought it better to quote the aboriginal inhabitants, who, as a race, have been longer exposed to the influences of the climate, and who subsisted on very insufficient and defective food as compared with the Europeans; yet among them the average height and weight is quite equal to that of English-born persons, and the extremes are quite as great. ”

“ With this foundation, what hope is there that, in working for the degree, the student will leave the beaten track and take to science, when he has Greek, English, Modern Language, and History from which to select his optional subjects? ”

“ In this connection, it is refreshing to come across the following statement of Professor Bruce, D.D., of Glasgow, in the British and Foreign Evangelical Review:—"Not that modern science is in itself atheistic in spirit or tendency, though a German philosopher of the last century, Jacobi, said that it was the interest of science that there should be no God. The statement is true only in the sense that science cannot allow the idea of a God or a Creator to be interposed as a barrier in the way of its pursuit of natural causes. ”

“ The Canterbury Provincial Scholarships are divided into four grades, with about six subjects in each grade, in none of which is science of any value to the competitor. For pupil teachers there are four progressive examinations, with no science; there is an examination for assistant teachers with no science; and the examinations for masters have science as a voluntary subject only in the first and second classes; and, since the establishment of these examinations, none have passed in Chemistry, and only about 20 papers in science have been worked, and these mostly only of a popular character. ”

“ In so far, then, as we can see, there is no reason for the theologian to feel any à priori hostility towards the doctrine of continuity. We see nothing to prevent the most devoutly-minded man from entering on the consideration of Evolution theories with as little prejudice or conception as he would enter on a consideration of the dynamical theory of heat. The great majority of questions raised are purely scientific, and must be examined by scientific methods and decided on scientific grounds. * * * In no respect does the advance of science tend to undermine the essentials of religious belief ”

“ Science troubles not the sleep of the embryo clergyman, although a little accurate knowledge of the wondrous harmony of the universe would give power to his discourses, and would enable him to show the absurdity of many of the pseudo-scientific arguments of those who neglect the duties which true science and religion alike enforce in the most unmistakable language. ”

“ All the fuel in this grate burns away to a clean ash and passes through the grate, so that the fire remains clear, and continues heating the room as long as there is any fuel left in it; for the fire does not die out but burns out, and this without any stirring, which sufficiently proves its adaptability for the combustion of the fuel obtained from those numerous coal-fields of Otago which are already becoming so rapidly developed, and which bid fair to become one of the most valuable natural products of New Zealand. ”

“ In fact, this doctrine of spontaneous generation, in one form or another, falls in with the theoretic beliefs of some of the foremost workers of this age; but it is exactly these men who have the penetration to see, and the honesty to expose, the weakness of the evidence adduced in its support. ”

“ The fact that the material and intellectual progress of a nation is largely dependent upon the scientific culture of its inhabitants, has been so often brought before the notice of the members of the Society, that to say anything further on the subject would be so like "killing the slain," that I do not attempt it. ”

“ This increase in the towns is still more impressed on us by the fact that, in 1874, 14 per cent. of the children born did not survive a year, and, in 1875, the proportion was nearly 18 per cent. It is thus within the towns that the death-rate is high, and it has nothing to do with the general climate as Dr. Newman supposes. Our towns, until they are properly supplied with sanitary appliances, are little better than crowded camps. The remedy is, to a great extent, in our own hands, and it will be our own fault if we lose the high reputation that New Zealand holds for salubrity of climate. ”

“ Even in this out-of-the-way corner of the earth, the Ultima Thule of civilisation, we find these Prophets of the Baal of Ignorance loftily criticising and condemning a philosophy whose foundations are utterly unknown to them, whose facts they misapprehend, whose arguments they misunderstand or misapply, whose conclusions even they have not taken the pains properly to acquaint themselves with. ”

“ The great drawback to Sydney was the bad water supply, narrow streets, and bad ventilation.
Colonel Leckie drew attention to the evil effects of discharging the sewage into the harbours at Bermuda and Gibraltar.
Mr. J. T. Thomson approved of the system advocated in Mr. Campbell's paper (vide ante) . The water-closet system was of modern date, and only experimental. In Dunedin, the pail system was adopted, with removal of the soil by steam barges, and the plan would, he thought, be the best for Wellington. Manufacturing towns should have a special system. ”

“ The degree of B.A. may be obtained, and, unless there are some alterations, will generally be obtained, without the competitors knowing anything of the forces at work controlling the universe in which they live, or of the materials of which it is composed, and yet the holder of the degree will be considered a man of liberal education and culture while ignorant of the wondrous speculations contained under the terms Matter, Energy, and Biology. ”

“ For though we have all our opinions, I think that both here and elsewhere Dr. Haast will find his fellow-members ready to consider with deference whatever he may bring forward. That this is so here, was evidenced during the discussion on Captain Hutton's paper on the "Maori Kitchen Middens at Shag Point," by the unanimous approval which greeted Professor Coughtrey's remark, that the subject on hand was one as to which we "should work and wait, and record our observations without at present drawing what might prove rash conclusions from them." ”

“ My first duty this evening is to tender my thanks to those of my fellow-members who, by their contributions of papers to our proceedings and by their animated discussion of the subjects of many of those papers, have made it proper for me to say that the session of the Institute during which it has been my privilege to preside over our meetings, has been more interesting and more important than any that has preceded it. The time of weakness and struggle is, I think, now past for the Otago Institute ”

“ For assuredly we have sufficient evidence that the intellectual vigour of our youth is such, that come what may they will drink at the forbidden fountain, and rejoice in its healthgiving and refreshing streams. ”

“ Thomson's disposal. He hoped that Mr. Seed would do the same, as he was aware that he had devoted some attention to the subject during his official visit. He mentioned other reasons for considering the Mori-ori a distinct race, and stated that as a rule they were several shades darker than the Maori. The race was fast becoming extinct, and would ere long, like that of Tasmania, exist only in history. It was, therefore, of the utmost importance that such information as that which Mr. Travers had collected should be placed on record in some permanent form for the use of future ethnologists. ”

“ Geology has been going through its own glacial period of late years, and has been overrun with ice theories which I take leave to think have all left disfiguring striæ on many a fair treatise. All that Captain Hutton has written on this subject, including his admirable paper "On the Geographical Relations of the New Zealand Fauna," gives valuable support to the reaction which has now set in against the widely prevalent theory that the earth was at some not very remote period subjected to cosmical influences which for a time greatly reduced its surface temperature. ”

“ Again, it is said that the doctrine, that things which are now fitted to fulfil the functions assigned to them have only attained this fitness by slow degrees, is inconsistent with rational views of the Divine forethought and wisdom. * * * If we regard the Deity as a being the same in kind as we are, and only surpassing us in degree, the objection is unanswerable. * * * But God is a being differing from us in kind as well as in degree. * * * God is not, as extreme special creationists would have us believe, limited in His working, as we are, by the properties of matter and force. ”

“ There is no one, we, believe, who has carefully considered the matter, who does not see that any intelligible theory of Evolution demands behind it a forecasting, intelligent will, and a constructive power far beyond any that we can exercise, or hope to exercise. Creation by law, as has frequently been remarked by our ablest thinkers, is not creation without God. ”

“ It is with regret I have to call the attention of the members of the Institute to the very small progress that scientific education is making in New Zealand. This is not only the case with the instruction now being given in our schools, but also in the training of the future teachers.
Colleges have been established in Otago and Canterbury with the necessary appliances for teaching the higher branches of science, but there is no systematic elementary training to produce a supply of students. In the elementary schools it is absolutely neglected ”