The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-12-03
SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE.
Q. u. Kinmnn Makes Some Reference to
Recent Articles by DIR. Swallow.

Q. II. KinmAn Makes Seine Referanee to
Recent Articles by DIR. swallow.
WoopvILLE, Mont, Nov. W.-In The
lNDEpENDENT of the 28th inst. / saw IN able
article from the pen Of the venerable Prof.
Swallow, on "The Bible and Science" in
which the learned professor dilates at
great length upon what he terms the agree
ment between the Mosaic account of the
creation and that of geology. He makes II
great 10 do over tho statement that man
was formed out of the dust of the earth,
the soil, and says this assertion was made
many hundreds of years before anyone
could have known that 1t WINS true (mean-
ing, of course. unless they were inspired).
How docs he knowp He forgot that
Moses WINS learned in all of the wisdom Of
the Egyptians; that civilization WAS old
aud passing into decay when Moses went
down into Egypt-a civilization which in
many respects surpassed our oWn. rev
are the monuments left to tell us of its
greatness, but they arc incompatible. We
could not build the pyramids with all OF
our art and sciences. They have stood while
oven the heavens have changed. The
north star il q newcomer to them. and the
southern CROSS has long since disappeared
from the horizon. They have modified our
navigation laws, and by the sid of
can he told the exact variation
of the compass. They unde rstood the art
of embalming the dead and they laid them
away to await the resurrection. We can
not do 1t. The secret is lost; but certainly
those who understood this art must have
known the composition of the thing they
were preserving.
1t seems to me the professor's idea that it
could not have been known that the human
body 10 composed of the same clements as
the soil is childish. How could 1t be other
wise? The soil must contain them in order
to supply them to the plants and animals
we eat; otherwise we conld not live. ON
bodies are made up Of the elements con-
tanned in the food we eat entirely. A child
in any age possessed OF reason must have
known this.
The professor then attempts to combat
tho idea that man descended from the
monkey; as if Darwin or Huxley had ever
taught such IN iuea. Both teach that man
has not descended from the monkey di-
rectly, but from the same parent stock.
Then the professor tells how the scientists
have searched for the missing link" but
there is no missing link.
So far as that is concerned. there are
tribes Of men in Aust ALA, New Caledonia
and parts of South Africa who live in trees
like apes and balloons. have no tribal prop
erty or marriage relations and have no Ian
guage except q few gutteral sounds and are
scarcely removed from the monkey. Man
is not descended from the monkey, or from
any other one order of animals, but he is
an ~embodyment of the nature and oharac-
t~eristics of all the animal life which has
proceeded him during all of the long geo.
logical ages of this world. He partakes of
the nature and characteristics of them all.
The fox is cunning but man is more so.
The dog ia sagacious but is not to be COM
pared with man. The tiger is ferocious
but man surpasses him, and go through tho
whole range. Man possesses no trait of
character but ia possessed by some brute
animal.
Mans browning glory is his mind and
that is but an aggregation of the instincts
of the animals from whomever he has in
herited his other characteristics. Every
faculty of the human intellect is possessed
by some brute animal. Man ia the bios
ance. In him are aggregated the traits,
structure. power and instincts OF all brute
animal life. Man was not made of dust
6,00O years ago, nor 10000, but millions of
cycling years have been necessary to evolve
the wondeyful animal. Our species is more
permanent than the venerable professor
seems to think. We 60 back in time for
millions of years.
The bible was written in an obscure cor
ner of the world in a darker age. 1t is an
effort to explain. at that time, the phenom'
ena of the world 1t is the science Of that
age. Very good for the time. but alto,
gether human. But some very nice ole
ladies, even in this age. believe it OF divine
origin. Only for this l might be to its
faults a little blind and to its merits very
kind. 9. X. KINMAN.