The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-03-15
The Truth as to Darwin.
Editor of The Chieftain;

Editor of The Chieftain
notice in your Forum that each
wri- er on the side of Superstition feels
called upon at some time or other to
pay his respects to that greatest of
the worlds scholars, Charles Darwin.
No matter how Ignorant the writer, or
how little he knows of the Theory
of Selection" and Survival of the Fit
test" as taught by the famous apostle
of the natural, these intellectual
pygmies make some slurring state
ments regarding the worlds most
learned scientist
Darwin the naturalist, was uni
versity man and grandson of DR.,
Erasmus Darwin, who had made some
investigations along the line of the
changing of species himself Charles
Darwin's career as naturalist com
menced on December 9th, 1881, when
he sailed from England on that famous
fve-year voyage on III. M. S. Beagle.
duly booked volunteer naturalist In
her majestys service 1t was during
this trip that Darwin secured all kinds
of specimens of animal life from the
single celled animals upward to the
higher forms of life, and during this
trip that he formulated his theory of
the Origin of Species
| On November cath, 1859, was pub
lished for the first time his Origin of
Species" Twelve hundred copies were
printed and the entire edition was
sold in single day.
This book startled the Christian
world, for to have the creation of the
world as described by Moses so rudely
assailed by the unanswerable argu-
ments of mere man was terrific
sin-perhaps the impossible sin against
the Holy Ghost
. Aristotle, some three hundred years
| before Christ, had suggested that by a
change of environment and cross fertil-
| ization, species might be changed, but
then Aristotle was a pagan and he
didn't count. Wallace had evolved the
| same conclusions about the same time
as Darwin, and Darwin gives him due
credit as being the joint discoverer
of the theories which bear his name.
/ The church at once put on the war
) paint and went after Darwin. Jews.
Catholics, Non-Conformists and all the
various sects who had been at the bit
| terest kind of enmity amongst them
r selves Joined hands n the very Ito
: them) laudable ambition of squeleh-
ing the man who had the audacity to
t attack the Biology of Moses. 1t may
be said here and now that Darwin
E never did say word against the book,
: nor did he ever use the words mis-
. sing link" nor did he ever say that
: man descended from monkeys. He
: did say that he believed that they had
: a common ancestor One branch Of
) the family took to the plains and evolv-
= ed into men, and the other branch
{ remained in the woods and are still
e members of the Simian family
/ To return to the onslaught made by
7 the church on the devoted head of
4 Darwin, we might narrate the fact
that no preacher or bishop felt him
5 self too large, or too small to attack
' the Origin Of Species" The fact that
e they had never read the book. much
: the same as the critics who qir fses~
g vulgar TRADE on Darwin in the fofalu.
: did not make any difference. They as
sailed him with soggy sermons, pious
+ platitudes referred To our monkey an
E cestry and tried to bury the deva
t Darwin under their theological A
r bish.
< Yet, to the everlasting credit Of tie
great naturalist, let it be stated that