The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-08-19
LAST WORDS ONs.EVOLUTION
BY ERNEST HAEcKEL
CONTINUED from previous issue.)

Continued from previous issue.)
| Wasmanns book has been we'll criti-
cized by a number of competent stu
dents, especially by Escherich and
France. While fully recognizing his
! great services, they insist very
strongly on the great mischief wrought
by this smuggling of the Jesuitical
spirit into biology, Escherich points
out at length glaring Inconsistencies
and the obvious untruths of this "ec-
clesiastical evolution" He summar-
ICES his criticism in the words: IF the
| theory of evolution can really be rec
onciled with the dogmas of the church
only in the way we find here, Was
mann has clearly proved that any such
reconciliation is impossible. Because
what Wasmann. gives here as the
theory of evolution is thing mutt
lated beyond recognition and incap-
able of any vitality" He tries, like
a good Jesuit, to prove that it does
not tend to undermine, but to give a
firm foundation to the story of super
natural creation, and that it was really
not Lamarck and Darwin, but St.
Aesustin and st. Thomas of Aquin,
who founded the science of evolution.
God does not interfere directly in the
order of nature when he can act by
means of natural causes" Man alone
constitutes a remarkable exception;
because "the human soul being a spir-
itual entity, cannot be derived from
matter even by the divine omnipo-
tence, like the vital forms of plants
and animals" (p. 299).
In an instructive article on Jesuit
cal science" lin the Frankfort Fret
Wort, Nov. %, 1904, r. H. France
gives an interesting list of the promi-
nent Jesuits who are now at work in
the various branches of science AS
he rightly says, the danger consists
lin a systematic introduction of the
Jesuitical spirit into science, a per-
sistent perversion of all it's problems
and solutions, and an astute under
mining of its foundations; to speak
more precisely, the danger is that peo-
pie are not sufficiently conscious of it,
and that they, and even science itself,
fall into the cleverly prepared pit of
believing that there is such a thing as
Jesuitical science, the results of which
may be taken seriously."%
While fully recognizing these dan
gers, l nevertheless feel that Jesuit
Father Wasmann, and his colleagues,
-unwittingly-don a very great
service to the progress of pure science.
The Icatholic church, the most power
full and widespread of the christian
sects, sees itself compelled to capitu.
late to the idea of evolution. 1t en-
braces the most important application
of the idea, Lamarck and Darwin's
theory of descent. which it had vigor,
ously combated until twenty years
~The eel-like sophistry Of the Jesuits
| which has been brought to such won.
| derful pitch in Slleir political system, can.
| not, as a rule, be met by argument. Al
! interesting illustration of this was giveI
by Father Wasmann himself in his con.
| troversy with the physician. DR.. Julia1
| Marcuse. The Scientific" Wasmann haC
gone so far in his zeal for religion as t
support a downright swindle of &
miraculous cure" in honor of the Moth
er Of God of Oostacker" (the Belgian
| LOurdeS). DR.. Marcuse succeeded in ex
posing the whole astounding story of this
''pious fraud" (Deutsche Stimmen, Der
lin, 1908, iv. Jahrg. No. 20) Instead o
giving a scientific refutation, the Jesui
replied with sophistic perversion and per
sonal invective Scientific I?1 Supple
ment to Germania, Berlin, 1902, No. 43
and 1903, No. 49, In his final reply, DR.
Marcuse said: II have accomplished m!
object-to let thoughtful people see one,
more the kind of ideas that are found il
the world of dead and literal faith, whicl
tries to put the crudest superstition anC
reverence for the myth of miraculou
cures in the place of science. truth anC
knowledge" (Deutsche Stimmen, 1908, V
Jahrgang No. -.