Evening star., 1925-07-28


to the Lemuridae; and the interval is
not very wide from these to the Limi-
idae. The Simiidae then branched off
I into two great stems, the New World
and the Old World monkeys, and from
the latter. at a remote period, man,
the wonder and glory of the universe,
proceeded. Thus we have given to
man a pedigree of prodigious length,
but not, it may be said, of noble quail
ity. ed. 1874, Hurst.
Note the words implying uncer-.
tainty: Obscure glance, apparently
resembling must have been slight
degree and conceive
Darwin, on page III of the same
book, tries to locate his first man
that is, tire first man to come down
out of the trees-in Africa, After
leaving man in company with goril-
las and chimpanzees. he says: But 1t
is useless to speculate on this sub
ject If he had only thought of this
earlier the world might have been
spared much of the speculation that
his brute hypothesis has excited.
Dispenses With Thinking.
"On page 10 Darwin gives some
fanciful reasons for believing that
man is more likely to have descended
from the chimpanZee than from the
gorilla. His speculations are an
excellent Illustration of the effect that
the evolutionary hypothesis has in
cultivating the imagination. Prof. }.
Arthur Thomson says that the idea
of evolution is the most potent
thought economiZing formula the
world has yet known. 1t is more
than that; it dispenses with thinking
entirely and relies on the Imagination.
"On page 141 Darwin attempts to
trace the mind of man back TO the
mind of lower animals. On pages ll5
and ia he endeaVors to trace man $
moral nature back TO the animals.
1t is all animal, animal, animal. with
never a thought of God or of religion.
Our first indictment against evolu-
ton is that it disputes the truth OF
the Bible account of mans creation
and shakes faith in the Bible as the
word of God. This indictment we
prove by comparing the processes des-
cribed as evolutionary with the text
of Genesis. 1t not only contradicts
the Mosaic record as to the beginning
of human life, but 1t disputes the
, Bible doctrine of reproduction accord
ing to Hnd-the greatest scientific
principle known.
Leads to Atheism.
"Our second indictment is that the
evolutionary hypothesis. carried to its
truth of the Bible. It's tendency, nat
ural, if not inevitable, is to lead those
who really accept it. first to agnosti-
cism and then to atheism. Evolution
lists attack the truth of the Bible, not
openly at first, but by using weaZel-
worss like 'poetical," "symbolical"
and "allegoricar' TO suck the meaning
out of the inspired record of mans
creation.
I'VE call as our first witness Charles
Darwin. He began life a Christian.
on page SO, volume I, of the Life and
Letters of Charles Darwin by his son
Francis Darwin, he says, speaking of
the period from 1928 to 1881, II did
not then in the least doubt the strict
and literal truth of every word in
the Bible" On page 412 of volume
II of the same publication, he says,
| when | was collecting facts for The
| Origin my belief in what is called
personal God was as firm as that of
DIR. Pusy himself 1t may be a sur
prise to your honor and to you, gen.
| tlemen of the jury, as it was to me,
| to learn that Darwin spent three years
at Cambridge studying for the min
istry
Darwin's Change.
This was Darwin as a young man,
| before he came under the influence
of doctrine that man came from a
| lower order of animals. The change
wrought in his religious views will be
found in a letter written to a German
youth in 1879, and printed on page PIT
of volume l of the Life and Letters
above referred to. The letter begins:
I am much engaged, an old man and
out of health, and / cannot spare time
to answer your questions fully-nor
indeed can they be answered. Science
has nothing to do with Christ except
in so far as the habit of scientific re-
search makes a man cautious in ad-
mitting evidence. For myself / do
not believe that there ever has been
any revelation. AS for a future life,
every man must judge for himself
between conflicting vague probabili-
ties"
Note that science has nothing to
do with Christ, except in so far as the
habit of scientific research makes
man cautious in admitting evidence. ;
Stated plainly, that simply means that
the habit of scientific research
makes one cautious in accepting the
only evidence that we have of Christ's
| existence, mission, teachings, cruel
f1xion and resurrection, namely, the
evidence found in the Bible. To make
this Interpretation of his words the
only possible one, he adds, For myself,
/ do not believe that there ever has
been any revelation
''In rejecting the Bible as a revela-
ton from God he rejects the Bibles
conception of God, and he rejects also
the supernatural Christ of whom the
Bible, and the Bible alone, tells. And,
it will be. observed, he refuses to ex-
press any opinion as to a future life.
Quotes Darwin's Son.
Now let us follow with his sons
exposition of his fathers views as
they are given in extracts from a
| biography written in 1876. Here is
Darwin's language as quoted by his
son:
During these two years October,
1888, to January, 1882 l was led to
| think much about religion. Whilst
on board the Beagle l was quite
! orthodox and 1 remember being
officers (who thought themselves
| orthodox for quoting the Bible as an
unanswerable authority on some
point of morality. When thus re-
| fiecting, 1 felt compelled to look for
a first cause, having an intelligent
| mind in some degree analogous to
man; and l deserved to be called an
atheist. This conclusion was strong
| in my mind about the time, as far
as I can remember, when I wrote
THE Origin of Species; it is since
that time that it has very gradually,
with many Quotations, become weaker
| But then arises the doubt, can the
| mind of man, which has, as 1 fully
believe, been developed from a mind
as low as that possessed by the
| lowest animals, be trusted when 1t
draws such grand conclusions?