The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-07
OFFERS THEORY OF
 SPECIAL CREATION Knoxville Lawyer Submits
 His Ideas WORK OF ALMIGHTY Smithson Maintains That Each Hu- man Beginning Is New, Direct
 and Special Creation of God

Knoxville. Tenn, April 6.-(special.)- Noble Smithson, lawyer and amateur biologist ofithis city, has advanced a new and original theory of special creation. He maintains that each human beginning is a new, direct and special Creation by Almighty God; that He specially endows each embryo with life, and creates new soul for each individual. He recently published new book ("smithsons Theo- ry of Special Creation," Victor Publishing Co.,, Knoxville, Tenn, 3D. in which he presents some of the facts and makes some of the arguments. supposed to SUD- port his theory. He delivered a lecture to a large audience at the city hall tonight, in which he said in part:
 Intellect. memory, will power, force and motion are necessary to group two or more atoms into prescribed chemical combination. or into a specified mechan- ical arrangement. Each embryo body is built of certain prescribed chemical com binations, which are arranged, mechan- ieally, in a specified manner, all such bodies being identically alike, and, there fore. that intellect, memory, will power, force and motion are necessary to con- struct every such body.
 Every human being begins life as a germ cell, composed of a spermatozoon and an ovum, in which there is no trace of the coming embryo, nor of any part of it. Immediately it is divided into two daughter cells. and these two into four, .h lot, 4p tp inhnity. each of them being an "organic brick These daughter cells are so dis trlbuted and grouped as to form the em- bryo body. with all its organs and parts, A certain portion of them are then differ entiated (metamorphosed), into bones, an- other portion into mucles, nerves, arte- ries, Veins etc.
 According to the evolutionist and ma teIialist, these blind, minimizing daughter cells (organic breks) do, spontaneously and automatically distribute and group themselves into the form of the embryo body. So the evolutionst and materialist maintain that certain chemical elements contained in these cells, namely: lime, phosphorus, carbon, oxygen, etc, spon- taneously and automatically group them selves in such q manner as to form the skeleton of the embryo body; that other chemical elements so group themselves as to form the muscles, arteries, veins, nerves etc, of the embryo.
 But 1t appears to me preposterous to suppose that this wonderful work is done spontaneously and automatically by the , blind, minimizing atoms and cells, of which the embryo is composed. l believe that the Creator generates, guides and controls the chemical and mechanical forces which build up each embryo body. This is the only hypotheses that can ac- count for and explain the development and growth of the embryo. It is perfectly clear that the embryo body either arises spontaneously and automatically from the atoms and cells of which 1t Is composed, or that it is directly and specially made by the Creator. There is no middle ground besides these two hypothesis. The one or the other must be true.
 Each embryo grows anew, indepen1- ently of the growth of its parents. It is a new combination of the atoms and cells of which it is composed, These atoms and cells are grouped into new chemical combinations and new mechanical ar engagements by new forces and motions, peculiar to each embryo. The fact that the fathers body and the mothers grew in the same manner that the child's body grows is no evidence that the bodies of its parents caused it to grow as it does. This fact only proves that all three of them were made by the Creator.
 "Heredity is said tQ. be the influence of parents upon offspring the transmission of qualities, characteristics and traits, mental or physical. from parents to their offspring. Therefore heredity is not material entity. II has no length, breadth, thickness nor weight; has mo intellect, memory nor will; has no power to gener- ate force to produce motion. Heredity is merely name for certain vital phenom- ena which we do not understand. We use it to conceal our ignorance, just as we use the word 'gravitation" and gravity It follows that heredity has no power to generate a new human being, nor to evolve one from the germ cell.
 Nature has no power to generate a new human being, nor to evolve one from the germ cell. This is true for the same reasons above stated with regard to her edity.
 "But the reader may say that the child does, in fact resemble one or both of his or her parents, and, therefore, that hered- ity or nature does evolve a new man or woman. But the real question is this: Do the atoms and cells of which Inc chld's body is made, spontaneously and automatically assemble and group them selves into the chemical combinations and mechanical arrangements necessary 10 produce child in the image of one of his or her parents, or does the Creator gen crate, guide and control the forces and motions, which produce the child? Which hypothesis is most plausible? There Is vast difference between q fact and a cause of that fact. Everybody knows that a stone falls to the ground, but mo- body knows why. Most of the wonderful work which is supposed to be done by na- ture or heredity is in fact done by the Creator.
 Both nature and heredity do all their work, if they do any. by and through the germ cell and it's daughter cells. They have identcally the same force and power that these cells have. This brings us back to the question whether the germ cell and the daughter cells arising from it can spontaneously and automatically generate a new human being without the aid of any extraneSus psychic and con structiye force. This hypothesis is too absurd for serious consideration.
 Each human body affords ample evi- dence that 1t is a new direct and special creation by Almighty God The form. structure, size and position of the bones in the skeleton and their number testify that it was designed and made by the Creator The form, structure of the eye as whole, and of the cornea, aqueous humor iris, vitreous humor retina. muscles and other parts of it, are ample proof that 1t is new direct and spacfaI