The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-07-08
POPULAR APoLoeETucs.
Adapted from the German of Rev.
Peter Mikes, S. j., by Rev. J
James Watcher.

Xiv. Survival of the Fittest, Natural
Selection, Adoption. (Contlnued.)
GU Varieties arising accidentally
are too insignificant to be of benefit
to the organism. Nor would in most
cases the change of one organ be of
any use. The harmonious working to-
gether must be preserved, which pre-
supposes a constant and harmonious
development during long periods of
time, during which the struggle for
existence could not have had a guild
ing influence. For example, that the
wings of birds could be used for fly
ing they must be of considerable size:
there must be the moving muscles, the
necessary skeleton for their attach
ment, the nerves must have a certain
development and arrangement. For
all that purely mechanical, spiritless
and painless explanation is not suf-
ficient.
How, for instance, will Darwinism
explain the eye? The eye is either de-
yeloped and adapted to the light, a
wonderfully artistic structure. in which
the greatest design is evident, and
Ee0uId not have arisenS bye mere
chance; or the eye is not developed
and hence unseryiceable, unfit, useless,
and hence a burden to the organism.
Now, according to Darwinisn1, it must
have persisted as unfit What could,
for example, the primeva1 cats have
done with those undeveloped eyes? OF
what use would it have been to them
that their great-great-gr kittens
would have serviceable eyes? Blind
chance is and remains "the god of
| FOOLS"
We know quite we'll that there are
| different degrees of organs of sight.
But how totally different is the struc-
ture of the eye of vertebrates and the
mere reticular eye of insects and the
organ perceiying light in eyeless ami
mails? Cor the latter see P. Was
| mann, S. j., in "Stimmen aus Maria
Laach,' vol. 81, 1899, p. 247 and
Ais y.
The transition from one organ to
another is found nowhere in nature
and it would be so unfit and unservice-
able that it's owner would have to per-
/ ish. If, for example, the lens in the
eye of a vertebrate is not perfectly
developed the eye is useless; how
then should on a sudden a perfect lens
be developed and be put in place?
Blind mans buff game is easier and
i more certain than this chance game. =
| (Pesch, Weltraetsel, IL. No. 634). q
(3) Paleontology (the Science OF
extinct animals and plants whose re-
mains still exist in the earth's crust)
speaks against this variety. The spe
cies appear suddenly in the geological
strata, ready and without a gradual
transition or any preparation fo1
them. They retain their form through
out all strata, in which they appear
and often disappear suddenly without
leaving varieties as preparation fol
higher types, as for example the saur
ians Gigantic extinct lizards).
| (4) Artificial selection is success
full only within certain limits, whilst
the specific type remains intact. AL
artificial kinds of fancy pigeons, fol
example, are still pigeons and are
recognized as such Immediately. The
further the variety proceeds from the
original type the harder it is to pro
duce them, and as soon as the artifi
cial care ceases, they return to the
Ioriginal normal stock.
i No one has ever succeeded in rails
| ing geese or eagles from pigeons, oil
something like half goose and second
class eagles. Therefore with this Oar
whistle natural selection we CAM
prove the tendency in nature to pro
duce new types.
| Hence the theory of Darwin can not
be proved by facts of the past nor OF
the present; it is untenable, because
lit tries to explain the most ingenious
work tthe world) without an intelli
| gent spirit God.
|