SCIENCE PONDERS RELIGION

The eminent astronomer of Harvard University, Harlow Shapley, introduces this collection of essays with one of his own, Stars, Ethics and Survival, which sees man forced to behave by the inexorable logic of his human predicament, if he is to survive. The laws of nature, discerned in the stars, -- and as other papers describe, in physical nature which surrounds and sustains man as well as in the genes which fashion him, make available to man a great deal of comfort and creative satisfaction if he will observe, learn and obey. This is not to say that his religious quest for meaning is out of order; indeed, it cannot be stifled. But it must beware lest it try to stifle the demonstrable facts of science, and therefore speed its own decline. These essays by 18 of the most able and eminent of living scientists working in all fields of human knowledge are exceedingly provocative. A good book for the religionist to turn to get rid of his complacency, and to learn the real shape and depth of the thinking of the world's scientific thinking and teaching with which he must daily reckon. Among the contributors are Kirkley F. Mather of Harvard, R. W. Gerard, University of Michigan, Henry Margenau, of Yale University, Theodosius Dobzhanskv, Columbia U., Alfred E. Emerson, U. of Chicago, and others of equal eminence.