The preacher then went on to criticise the attitude of religion towards science. “If there is still a feeling of hostility between them ... it is no longer the fault of religion. There have been times when the church seemed afraid, but she is so no longer. Analyze, dissect, use your microscope or your spectrum till the last atom of matter is reached; reflect and refine till the last element of thought is made clear; the church now knows with the certainty of science what she once knew only by the certainty of faith, that you will find enthroned behind all thought and matter only one central idea,—that idea which the church has never ceased to embody,—I AM!”
Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918), U.S. historian. Esther, p. 190, Library of America (1983).