The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-04-15
DARWINISll Ole AND FALSE

We +
save a few fragments. strewn about the
arena" s1s saa lay}
Confusion Among the Biologists.
Perhaps preiudiced person.! Per-
haps. though do not think so, for
every word he says can be substan-
tiated. But here is Professor Kellog.
a distinguished American and, with no
other prejudice than. one against the
Catholic Church, who wrote-about
the same time-that Biology today
teens with mutually incongruous opin-
ions-all of which are .conceivably in
correct No wonder that he should
add Among biologists confusion
reignS"
The remarks which one often reads
about the indebtedness of evolution
and other kindred topics would seem
to carry the matter little too far.
But about Darwinism-the true va
riety formulated by Darwin; what of
that? What exactly is it? Not the
theory that one kind of species may
originate from another and so on
backwards until we come to few or
perhaps even only one living form.
That is much older theory than OAR
win, for it was discussed by the
Greeks and by the early Fathers of
the Church from st. Augustine down
to st. Thomas Aquinas and since
those days to the present by many
eminent Catholics like Suarez, Father
Wasmann, s. j., and last of all lin
| II
Louvain. None of them have taught
as so many misleading books teach,
| that the theory is an established fact.
1t would explain many things, and it
may be the explanation. But then
again 1t may not. Twenty plausible
| explanations of a group of facts may
be all wrong and, at the best, nine
| teen of them must be.
Uncle Remus gave plausible ex.
| I!anation to his little boy friend of
| the short tail of the rabbit. 1t pleased
| the little boy, but it was quite wrong.
| Darwin put forward a theory to ac-
count for the working out of evolu.
ton and he called it Natural Selec-
ton" For long time it was Landed
to the skies as the one possible ex-
PLANTATION. Then other facts came to
knowledge. The discoveries of Abbot
| Mendel, which have changed the mind
OF Professor Bateson as to Darwin's
philosophy, came before the scientific
world long after the death of their
author. A distinguished American bi.
ologist has said that these discoveries
| have given the death blow to the the
| DRY of Natural Selection. Others
would scarcely go so far. must
| confess that it seems difficult to me to
| understand where there is much room
for Natural Selection under the more
| rigid interpretations of the Mendelian
| discoveries. Here again it is likely
| that there will be a reaction, as has
happened SO often before, and that a
| more moderate view may prevail.
| But this is certain, the Darwin's pivot
doctrine has been badly shaken and
few today would assign to it more
than very moderate role in evolu-
ton. A sieve is what Driesch calls it.
That sums up the position very well.
Research Admirable, Theories Weak.
AS to Darwin's other theories, such
lis Pangenesis and Sexual Selection,
impossible even to outline here, IL may
| safely be said that they are either
| completely disbelieVed, or, at most,
very doubtfully and half.heartedly
held by men of science It seems
| then that there is much truth In the
statement which l quoted above that
Darwin's works are a great store
house of facts about animals and
plants and as such will forever be
| held in honor, but that as to his phil
| osophy, his theories, his guesses, if
you like, they no longer hold the posi-
| ton which they once did AS to the
wl1er of his discipIes-the authors
of the ''Darwinianism," much of which
was not the gospel according to Oar.
win at ALT is impossible to speak
here for lack of space. If the views
quoted from various sources are even
approximately correct, 1t would seem
that much of their writings are mere
beating of the air.