Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-09-19
ON EVOLUTION.

Il
years since Darwin was born. and the
theory that bears his name has been.
promulgated throughout the world for
at leas. fifty years. These facts add
interest to volume just published by
the Cochrane Publishing company, New
York, on Darwinism. It is entitled,
s"What Is Man?" and the author Is
5Judson d. Burns. MD.
Dr. Burns, In this volume. takes the
view that there Is no scientific founda-
tion for the theory Of evolution, but
that 1t is based upon a chain Of reason
ing which has no real connection with
the facts established. 1t Is. he claims,
based upon SIS and assertions not
proved, Dr.. Burns conclusion Is that
the creative theory Is more IN Accord
hnce5 with the facts as known by scien-.
tific research than Is tho evolutionary
theory, and the arguments are very
strong in favor of his position.
No synopsis Of his argument can do
full Justice to his book. He treats of
the subject Very exhaustlvely. Life. he
says, came from but one source-from
God, the Giver of life. The simpler
forms Of life came first and after the
simpler forms came the more complex
forms, more and more complex. until
Man was reached, But there IS abso-
lntely nothing to prove that later COM
pick forms of life came out of the older
and simpler forms, or that the older
forms were tho progenitors Of the lat
or forms, as Is claimed by the eyolu-
ZIONIST On the contrary, geology In
clines strongly to show that the older
forms of life were all. or very largely,
extinct before the newer or later forms
or life appeared.
II would be natural, DR.. Burns con-
tinues. that the simpler forms of life
should appear first and the complex
forms of life later, instead of the
complex forms appearing first and the
simpler forms later Indeed, we have
good reason to believe that when the
simpler forms of life came, the earth
was not fitted for the complex forms
of life, but only fitted for the simpler
forms. The complex forms of life could
not maintain themselves here, Mt the
time the simpler forms came upon the
earth. But as the changes wrought
produced more suitable environ
ment, new and higher forms Of life
came suddenly upon the SCENE, wholly
without any intermediate, transitional
forms of life, which must have been
the case il the older forms were the
progenitors of the later forms. 1t has
been coneiusvely shown, he says. that
| tho later forms of life could not have
| come by ordinary descent from the pre-
| vious forms of lifeJ there is, then, but
| one other solution of the problem, viz,
| separate, special creation of the spe-
cies, This is the only adequate solu-
ton of the problem.
Why is that solution, he asks, de-
| cIared unreasonable by some and i'm
| possible by others? Is it not a thou
| sand times. more reasonable than TO
say that the newer and higher forms
| of life came from the Older forms by
| natural descent, when the history OF
the world says 1t Is an impossibility +?
But especially is II an impossible
| thing If the older forms were all ex'
| tlnct before ll!e lleWbI loIIlS VI ltie
| came upon the scene, But, above all
other reasons stands the fact of nature.
| viz, that 1t Is an impossibility tol
| one genus to gring forth another
| genus. That fact alone ought to set
/ tie the question. We know such to be
the case now, and we have every real
son to believe it has always been the
! case.
| Without entering more fully into the
/ discussion of the subject, we merely
/ note that the evolutionary theory pre-
| sents difficulties that no one has at
| tempted to solve One is this that, as
! far as human experience knows savage
! man Is never lifted UP TO higher levels
through any innate civilizing forge,
/ or through the aid of natural forces
| alone Civilization always comes from
| the outside. 1t comes from this coun-
try to that, as far as history records.
And history proves more. 1t proves
that savage races degenerate instead
of advance. It proves that the South
Sea islanders .. hundred years after