OUTLOOK
ISSN 0969-1049 INCORPORATING THE SWEDENBORG MOVEMENT NEWSLETTER
- Levitas
- WB Yeats and Swedenborg
- Books that might have been
- A town built on a hill
- Keeping the score
- The Big Bang
- Jesus, man or God ? the Easter Question
- Promise of Spring
- Science and truth
- The Millennium
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Science and truth
The dialogue continues
Dear Eric Robson,
Thank you for responding to my letter published in Outlook 26. I appreciate your efforts to stimulate further debate regarding the article entitled 'Science and Truth' and I am sure the editor does too.
Your letter in issue 27 contains a number of quotes which I will comment on later. In the mean-time I refer to your initial article in No. 25 where you pointed out that individual statements about 'truth in itself' can only be regarded subjectively, which, in the case of religious beliefs amount to no more than declarations of personal faith. In reply to that conclusion of yours, I mentioned that the Lord himself had said the Truth would witness to him, and then I simply asked the question 'does that mean (according to your views) that what he said could only merit a subjective valuation'. In other words, it might not witness to him.
I have been led to believe that in the spiritual world, truth can be demonstrated actually, as scientific truth can be demonstrated in the natural world. I appeal to any minister of the New Church who can spare a little of their time to join in the debate, and perhaps clarify that point for me.
One thing I am subjectively certain of, unless a truth is conjoined to its associate good it is ineffective, and even when it is conjoined to good, it still remains ineffective unless it terminates in some form of use. I vaguely remember, somewhere in the Bible, there are references to persons calling down fire from heaven to validate the truth they pro-claimed. Maybe that could be clarified also in the next issue of Outlook.
With regard to scientifics, and your quotes from Swedenborg, I find the following points reassuring - that scientifics could be the means to wisdom - that those consulting scientifics concerning divine truths, provided that they are in an affirmative state of mind, tend to become confirmed in their beliefs - that modern physics is leading to a world view compatible with the mystical tradition. Incidentally, a well-known British scientist has said it is likely in these days that people will be convinced of the existence of a Creator God, more by the conclusions of modern scientists, than by religious dogma.
Moving on, I note the reference to paragraph 280 in Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell, which indicates the correspondence between innocence and naked-ness. This reminds me of what I said in Outlook 26, that to equate nakedness with innocence is similar to linking the state of virginity with virtue. Without meaning to be disrespectful, I must admit that I was tempted to say on that occasion that the nudity of the primitive probably had more to do with the innocence of ignorance than the innocence of wisdom.
'Now is the time for the mysteries of faith to be entered into with the understanding' (quoted from Swedenborg). Now is also the time for the mysteries of science to be entered into with the understanding. In the past, the dominant established church of the time insisted they knew best, and everyone else must accept the idea that church doctrine was infallible. Blind faith from the rest of humanity was all they required to confirm that infallibility. Is it any wonder that men of integrity, probably out of an affection for truth in general, which includes scientific truth, ran a mile from such hideous delusions of grandeur.
I am happy to say that the New Church, founded on the revealed truths given to Swedenborg, is much more modest in its level of self-esteem. I leave it to Swedenborg himself to encapsulate his personal rejection of 'blind faith' - 'A belief without reason, is an unreasonable belief.' (End of quote)
Yours sincerely, George Young.
Prompted by Skriber's railway piece in the last issue of Outlook, Enid Nicholls now draws our attention to this unusual epitaph from Ely Cathedral commemorating the untimely deaths of two 19th. century railwaymen.
