Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-31


the evolution debate which fared up
with the trial Of the Scopes ease ut
DAYTON Tenn and which still Is
going strong in England. Many per
sons know Sir Oliver Lodge as
convert Ia spiritualism. Many others
know him as one of the outstanding
scientists of the age. Many others
will know him from now on as
great reconciIer of modernists and
fundamentalists For Sir Oliver holds
that both the evolutionists and III"
-xponents of the Genesis story of
creation are riSht-at least partially.
Truth of Genesis.
Sir Oliver is convinced that man
5esrended-Or assembled - from the
animal kingdom. But with every new
scientific discovery he is struck afreSh
by the essential truth of the book Of
Genesis. if Genesis is regarded as a
roetic description of the mystery of
the creation OF the universe.
II find people troubled by the idea
of evolution. not only in America. but
here" Sir Oliver told the writer. The
trouble is that the theory OF eNolu-
ton has carried its enthusiasts 100
far: il has led some to exclude the
idea Of mind and purpose from the
universe. to replace it by mechanism.
This philosophy was incomplete,
and il is now recognized as faulty
account of the universe The mis-
take # il can be called mistake
Law in putting the theory of evolution
forward in opposition to the idea OF
creation instead of regarding 1t as
a method of creation. The old idea
of creation as n sudden achievement.
without Intermediate steps or the eN-
tensive lapse Of time, we now see to
t1 nd nprrplVp that
the old idea contains elements OF
truth. Just as the hypothesis of eNo-
luton did"
Is Poetic Account.
Sir Oliver quoted from Genesis: In
the beginning. God created the
heavens and the earth; and the earth
was without form and void: and dark
ness was upon the face of the deep.
And the spirit of God brooded upon
the face of the waters. And God
said Let there be light and there was
light"
Though this is an inspirational
and poetic account, he continued.
land therefore dramatically describes
as happening in a twinkling what
it took hundreds of MILLIONS of years
TO effect. the description is remark
ably true to the actual process. Look
ed at as inSpirational poetry, the es-
sence of this chapter of Genesis is
the perception. first, that there was
a brooding OF the Divine Spirit, Il
mind at work, planning and eXecut-
ing. This is a theory which many
scientists, myself among them, ac-
cept Second, that a cosmos sprang
from the formless, from the void, the
world came into being and light made
Its appearance.
Built of Two Units.
How. according TO modern science,
was the universe born? The whole
is built of two units, two elements of
electric charge, the electron and the
proton. The atoms of matter are born
from these two and united by third
element. an intangible something,
called ether or radiation: its popular
term iS-Hght. So we have the
process: The brooding spirit: the plan
ming mind; the void full Of electric
charges being welded together by
radiation TO form whirling particles
that become nebulae, the nebulae
whirling at last into worlds.
My own theory Is that the universe
has neither beginning nor end; cosmic
evolution proceeds in cycles, first, the
ether of space. full of radiation: then
the knotting up of this ether into cleo
irons and protons !: the grayitating
into nebulae of the resultant particles