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teem, grounded in fear and nourished by organized distrust, is sub–
stituted for prior favorable public regard.
The fundamental consideration, then, with respect to the for–
saking of the "scientific attitude of mind," would seem to be that the
great mass of human beings has not deserted it for the simple
reason that the mass never shared that attitude. The mass certainly
experienced its
consequences,
however. Technological applications of
science have for a long time, with continued acceleration, been the
chief sources of human experiences on an ever-widening geographical
scale and with ever-increasing intensity. As long as consequences were,
on the whole, enjoyed, "science" rated high. Now that war and
threat of war are a conspicuous effect in the contact of nations and
races, and now that depressions bring unemployment and insecurity,
there does not appear to be any mystery in the desertions and reces–
sions that take place. That the loss in esteem is not even greater
than it is may well be due to the rise of physical chemistry and of
biology which has provided "science" with a new and positive
ground for popular favor.
We are thus brought to the further question: "Is some re–
adjustment necessary by which the scientific attitude will be given a
new place?" What is said below will explain, I hope, the omission in
the passage quoted of the following words in the sentence cited:
"in the intellectual hierarchy." For the position indicated by what
has already been said is that a readjustment giving science a "new
place" is a need of the very first order. The scientific attitude has had
little place in the concerns and interests of highest importance to the
mass of men. In consequence the attitude is inevitably contained
and restrained in the class that is specifically intellectual.
Little or nothing has been explicitly said in the foregoing in
response to the questions about religion we are invited to consider. I
now add that, in my best judgment, what has been said about the
isolation of "science," because of its virtual erection into something
existing on its own account instead of an expression of all kinds of
socio-cultural interests and activities, holds, in equal (probably great–
er), measure of religion. I shall confine what I have to say on this
point to the final question: "Assuming that in the past religions
nourished certain vital human values, can these values now be
maintained without a widespread belief in the supernatural?"
