Evening star., 1925-07-13
WILBUR DEFENDS
BIBLE TEACHINGS
Declares, However, That
Evolution May Be Process
of God.
BY the Associated Press.


SAN FRANCISCO. July f3.-Speak-
ing on Evolution and the Bible, at
The First Congregational Church here
Yesterday, Secretary of the Navy
curtis ID. Wilbur declared that sal
walton does not depend on our belief
as to how God created the universe"
salvation depends upon our belief
In God and His Son. If we use the
theories of evolution as an excuse of
getting rid Of God and our obligation
10 Him. we can thus destroy our
souls. But if we believe that evolu-
tion was the process by which God
created the universe and operates ii
today, we are no better land no worse
than the man who believes that God
instantly created all living things
run grown with the power to repro
duce.
IF God created all things first full
grown. that act of creation has never
been repeated. All subsequent forms
OF life have developed from a single
cell. Whether this happened the first
time man was created or only in all
subsequent creations, 1 consider rela-
lively unimportant."
Says God Is Essential.
Secretary Wilbur pointed out the
weakness of the theory of scientists
who fail to take God into account"
and expressed the view that belief in
God is just as essential to the modern
list who holds to the theory of evolu-
ton as to the fundamentaliSt who &C
cepts literally the biblical explanation
of the creation.
There can be no conflict between
the truth of science and the truth
of religion. But there is a conflict
between the Bible story of creation
as we have taught it for several hun
dred years and the evolutionist theory.
consequently those who see in the
teaching of evolution in the public
schools a menace TO religion are cor
rect in so far as they see a menace
10 the Bible story of creation"
The possibility that errors might
have Crept into the biblical text
through translation and rewriting
was admitted by Secretary Wilbur.
THE first sentence of the Bible
was written at least a thousand years
before the last sentence was written
1t was nearly 400 years after the
Old Testament closed before the disci-
pies began to write the story of the
life of Jesus. The Bible, like the
world, demands an explanation.
Says Bible Form of Evolution.
Il think it fairly evident that the
Bible itself is not only an evolution,
but that it describes an evolution.
The Bible story of creation no doubt
had been handed down from genera
ton to generation by word of mouth
until finally it was set down in writ
ing. 1t is apparent that no man
witnessed the creation as the Bible
describes it, no more than the crea-
tlon according to the evolutionary
theory.
Jesus Himself wrote no word ex-
cepting the singe word written in the
dust.
In all life there is an upward ten
dency. There is an urge in the life
cell not only to duplicate itself and to
reproduce, but also an urge for up
ward development. Some cells have
remained in the dust and muck, but
man is the capstone of creation and
represents the triumph of all the agen-
cies working toward his uplift.
If, in the processes of millions of
years we have come to the point in
evolution where man may reach out
and grasp Immortality, or may reject
and refuse Immortality, it is indeed
true that we are dwelling between two
eternities, past and future.
There is one clear call in Christ's
message is a call to hear, to see,
to know, to advance, to reach out, to
seek God. In His message I find no
call to close the eyes or shut the ears
to the things that reason may discern.
When scientists have solved all
the problems of life. when they are
able to take the protoplasm and de-
velop it into a full-grown man, it will
be time enough for the scientists to
begin dogmatizing instructions in the
ways of life. When they can form the
protoplasm from which life springs,
then it will be time enough for them
to deny that God was needed in crea-
ton"