--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Wiggam, Albert Edward collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 32 number: 6 published: 1929-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Albert Edward Wiggam, “Science Leads Us Closer to God,” *Improvement Era* 32, no. 6 (April 1929): 457–459." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3206unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3206unse start_page: 457 end_page: 459 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1929-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3206unse publication_year: 1929 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1929, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Science Leads Us Closer to God Science Leads Us Closer to God Michael Pupin as told to Albert Edward Wiggam Reprinted, by permission, from the Reader's Digest of December, 192 8, being a condensation from the September, 192 7, American Magazine CIENCE is making us better Christians. Science is teaching men how to cooperate more intelligently with God; it is teaching men what God's laws are, and how to obey* them. Science is increasing our belief that the human soul is the greatest thing in the universe, the supreme purpose of the Creator. These are a few of the impressions which I carried away from a talk with Michael Pupin on what science means to a man's spirit- ual life. i Michael Pupin came to America 54 years ago as an ignorant peasant boy of 15. Recently he was elected president of the Amer- ican Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the highest scientific honors in the world. What he says, therefore, is the out come not only of profound scientific knowledge, but also of an inti- mate .knowledge of life — its hardships, struggles, disappointments, and successes. "When I was a boy in Serbia," said Dr. Pupin, "I used to spend part of my time, with other boys, herding the grazing oxen that be- longed to our fathers. At night I was enchanted by the stars, blaz- ing in the firmament. I imagined that the light of these stars was a message from God telling us the hour of the night and the direc- tion of the approaching dawn. "When the vesper bell would ring, my mother, a pious woman, would say, 'Michael, do you hear the divine message which calls you to the altar of God?' Thus gradually I began to imagine that the sound of the church bell also was a message from God. "It is not surprising that in my boyhood days I often asked myself two questions: What is sound? and, What is light? A search for an answer to these two questions has undoubtedly directed my scientific career. "Sound, I found as a scientist, is due to the vibration of material bodies. But the physical vibrations are only a small link in the con- nection of the external physical world with the internal world of a man's mind. There, within the man's mind, the soul interprets the language of sound. And the more I think of this, as a scientific man, the more I do recognize that my boyhood fancy was right — sound is a message to our souls. 458 IMPROVEMENT ERA April, \9i9 'Today, when 1 hear Kreisler playing, or any other great mu- sician, I feel that he is making the vibrating strings speak a language which is a true message from heaven. "Light, I found, is a series of tiny electronic pulses sent throughout space from the s,un and stars. And just as sound sets going the nerves of the ear to carry messages from the external world to the internal world of the human soul, so these electronic pulses set going the nerves of the eye which carry their messages to the brain. There, the soul deciphers and interprets their meaning. All these vibrations receive their true meaning only when the soul deciphers their message. And the more I think of it as a scientist, the more' do I feel that those gleams of light from the quiet stars, which fell upon my eyes as I tended the oxen, were really messages to the soul, declar- ing, the glory of God. "Now, since science finds that the physical universe, with all its electrons in motion, receives its true interpretation only as its mes- sages reach the soul which alone can decipher these messages, does it not lead logically to the belief that the soul of man is the greatest thing in the universe? Indeed, does it not lead to the belief that the human soul is the highest purpose in God's creative energy? "Sometimes we sneer at our puny earth, saying 'It is such a tiny speck of dust in the universe that it cannot amount to much. A star like Betelguese — that's a big thing.' But is bigness the true standard of measure? True, Betelguese is enormous, nearly three hundred million miles in diameter. Our whole solar system could swing around inside it. But what is Betelguese? Nothing but a big gas bag — that's all. With all its size, it has no soul. It cannot hear the call which I heard as an ignorant boy, to worship at the altar of Almighty God. "These big stars are only the beginning of God's creative energy. The human soul, in so far as science can penetrate, is the last chapter of cosmic history as far as it has been written. It is in the soul that Divinity resides. And when we think of that, we are not so small. Science has found nothing in the universe which even compares in importance with the life of man. "Wherever science has explored the universe, it has found it to be a manifestation of a coordinating principle. It leaves us no escape from the conclusion that back of everything there is a definite guiding principle. We are faced with two alternatives: either the law and order of the universe is the result of haphazard happenings; or it is the result of a definite intelligence. Now, which are you, as an intelligent being, going to choose? "Personally, I believe in the Divine Intelligence, because it is simpler and more intelligible. It harmonizes with my whole expe- April. 1929 SCIENCE LEADS US CLOSER TO GOD 459 rience. When you see the stars, each moving along its own pre- scribed path with a precision impossible to attain in any mechanism constructed by man, when you see a seed grow after a definite plan into a tree, or a baby develop into a self -directing human individ- uality, can you believe that it is the result of haphazard happenings? Such a belief is beyond my understanding. "Moreover, is it reasonable to suppose that the soul, which is the most important thing that creation has achieved, will perish when the physical body dies? Is the soul going to have existed in vain? It does not seem possible to me. Science does not offer mathe- matical proof of the immortality of the soul, but it gives us plenty of grounds for intelligent hope. And it adds to our conviction that physical life is only a stage in the development of the soul. My personal belief is that everything that happens in this great universe is for a purpose; and that purpose is the development of the human soul. That is where science and religion touch. Science adds im- measurably to the foundations of religious faith. Science will strengthen religion — as it has strengthened mine. "My religion as a scientist does not contradict a single element of the religion which my mother and the people of my native village held when I was a boy. Science has simply brought me to a higher, broader view of the Creator. "That is the real pleasure of scientific work. The purpose of science is not merely to make material things, inventions to increase wealth and comfort. These things are certainly a blessing, but not the greatest blessing. If science does not assist me to give myself and others a better religion, a better understanding of the Creator, and a closer personal touch with Him; if science does not assist me in car- rying out the Divine purpose, then I am a failure as a scientist. But science has made me a better Christian; I believe it will make better Christians of all men and women who try to understand its simple and beautiful laws, because they are the laws of God." [Dr. Pupin, here quoted, is the author of the book From Immigrant to Inventor-, one of the books on the M. I. A. reading course. — Editors.] It is a great, stalwart soul that qualifies a man to think great, stalwart thoughts; and if you have not such a soul, come as close as you can to a man who has, and you will become richer without his being made poorer. — Charles H. Parkhurst. The people of the United States very deliberately framed their government with the view of remaining the masters of it, and not of being mastered by it: and they are not yet willing to abdicate in favor of any, even the most audacious conspirator, against their sovereignty. — John Bigelow, in the New York Tribune.