There are, as
it were, two centers in our being: the Brain, which is the seat of the
intellect, thought, or reason, and the Heart, where feeling or emotion
come from; this is a way of explaining the difference in nature
between Thought and Emotion, Wisdom and Compassion.
Now, a person might be highly
intellectual and wise, but without Love and Compassion, he could be
cold and uncaring. As St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13:1, said: "If
I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I
have become a sounding-piece of brass or a clashing cymbal".
Conversely, a good and kind person, lacking wisdom to guide his
goodness and kindness, might be foolish and do a lot of harm, even if
unintentionally.
So, Intellect and Feeling, Wisdom and
Compassion, must go together, in mutual support of each other. And
although today, in many people’s eyes, Science has superceded and
discredited Religion, it is not so; it has challenged Religion, to be
sure, and has demonstrably proved some of its fondly held dogmas
incorrect and obsolete, but this has been good for Religion in helping
it understand the need for a serious stock-taking; it hasn’t
invalidated it.
Science, on the other hand, could
benefit by applying the spirit of Religion in various fields, for
example: vivisection, its activities affecting the environment, and by
refusing to invent, develop and produce things detrimental to human
life.
And, now that our eyes have been
opened, we can, and must, strive to amalgamate Science with Religion—as they are
not really the opposing magnetic poles that people once took them to
be—to produce a
Religious Science, or a Scientific Religion. If we do not, then these
two great fields of human endeavor must remain antagonists.
