Daily Kennebec journal., 1925-07-18
THE EARTH EFT cETERA


editor to present in detail and in
full all evidence that it would be alb
surd to teach the school pupils that
the world was created in six days OF
"a hours each. Notwithstanding this
reader characterizes the conclusions
Of scientists as "the improved state
ments Of .professedly learned men,"
Under such conditions the editor
would indeed be presumptuous to at
tempt that which he is asked to do.
He could not hope to improve on
what the scientists have revealed.
Manifestly the reader and the editor
are looking at the matter from en-
tirely different viewpoints. With
out attempting to reconcile these 1t
may be POSSIBLE to arrive at better
understanding.
A definition Of absurd" used in
this connection is: Inconsistent with
reason or common sense" Those are
finite qualifications. Scientific facts
are defined as truths Of nature ad-
mitting Of repeated verification. The
reader Of the rocks. Of the layers in
the crust Of the earth, may also be
a reader Of the Bible, a believer in
the Bible, one Of the millions of diff
ferent Interpreters of the Bible. But
II he reads the rocks for the purpose
Of supporting his Biblical opinions
he Is not a scientist. A SCI
enlist must seek and prove the truth
according to the evidence he finds
in nature, according to the laws Of
nature and in the light Of his finite
reason or common sense.
So. though he may believe 1t to
have been possible for the Creator
TO have created all this in six min
ates instead of six days, he finds
that according to the laws Of nature
the different layers Of the earth's
crust, the different fossils character
istic of the several layers must, ac-
cording to the process Of natural
laws, have come there only through
long intervals Of time. Now. teach
ing in the American public schools
is not supposed to be for the pur-
pose Of inculcating certain religious
beliefs, but knowledge Of finite facts,
To teach that the world was made in
six days of "a hours each-the Bible
does not tell us how long were the
evening and the morning" which
constituted each of the days-would
be teaching a religious belief, not a
scientific fact.
Surely there is as much cause to
suppose our Creator is originally re-
sponsible for our capacity for finite
reasoning as to suppose that He is
responsible for the creation of the
earth; that to make natural use OF
1t shows no disrespect for the Crea
tor. So we conclude that man is
performing creditable service to con-
tinue his efforts to establish the re-
lations between cause and effect, and
that such efforts are nowise impious
III tIdC VlcW u lie SlIudl1O1I, ~
raging Of the facts, did the limita-
tons Of any newspaper permit OF
this, would seem to be useless in this
instance. Doubtless the result would
be similar to that of conversation
between a returned college boy and
his worthy grandmother. an incident
the authenticity Of which we are as
sured.
She asked him where he got this
notion Of evolution and he said in
schools, and in what he had been
reading. She expressed some ques-
tioning as to the value Of college
education, but he persisted.
Grandmother, you believe the
earth is. we'll say, 5000 years old
but II you dig down and find some
thing that reason tells you must have
been there for twenty-five or hun
dred thousand years, what would you
think?"
II would not think, young man."