Harlow Shapley

Essays on the stars, the basic composition of life, cosmic evolution, and the role of the scientist in civilization. For contents, see Author Catalog.

By "a group of the country's most eminent scientists, who examine a problem which has puzzled and enthralled mankind, in the light of the most recent scientific knowledge. Since the first fumbling steps toward scientific knowledge, there has been a continuing war, sometimes hot and sometimes cold, between science and religion. It has involved the most sophisticated as well as the most uneducated minds. Its martyrs have been many. Yet it may well be that science will become the revealer, and not the antagonist, of religion; that religion will be redefined in such a way that its God is the natural and not the supernatural Creator; and that these concepts will constitute the basis of a world religion of the future" from the book jacket.