New Britain herald., 1927-08-24
NO MESSING LINK
 PRIEST DECLARES
Rev. M. ]. Ahern Addresses
 KiWanianS on Evolution

There is no such thing as a missing link" in the popular un- derstanding of that term. according to Rev. M. J. Ahern, professor of geology and chemistry at the Jesuit seminary at Weston, Mass. who spoke to the Kiwanis club members at the Burritt hotel today.
 Father Ahern told his hearers there is no such thing as a missing link, or half man-half ape, but that each was a separate form and sprang from a common ancestor.
 He said the theory of evolution is the best working hypothesis there is today, but scientists are becoming more cautious in making broad assertions as to the differ ences between certainty and proba- bility.
 He exhibited a number of lantern , slides by which he pointed out the evolution theory of today. and some of its discrepancies.
 Continuing, he said:
 There is in some quarters a 1 tendency to look upon any criti- l cism of the theory of evolution as sign of mindedness, or of 1 blind adherence to a worn out re- ligious tradition. But it must not be | forgotten that the theory of evolu- 1 ton, like any other scientific the ! ory, is subject to revision, re-state- ment, improved formulation. and 1 that it must assimilate new facts, and review its estimates of old ones. { And this Is precisely what 1t Is do- i ing.
 Witness the recent controversy between Professor Osborn on the one hand and his co-worker Pro- lessor Gregory on, the other, re- i garding the evolution of man. Both ! these distinguished scientists are far from being unfriendly to the i theory-quite the contrary. But like the sane scientists they are, they are cautions in drawing conclusions be- yond the facts, avoiding the dog matism of the semi-scientist on the one hand and on the other the easy credulity of those who do not want to exert themselves in the labor of accurate thinking.
 "Whatever criticism may appear in the present lecture is directed not against the theory as such, but against the congregations current in the ideas of a good many people, regarding what is popularly called The Cave Man. A widely prevalent | idea of "The Cave Man is that he was semi-intelligent. semi-moral, physically violent creature, with few or none of the finer human instincts, or feelings, with no moral | code, except a code of force and sensuality, and with no religious in- stincts except an ancestor worship based on fear and superstition.
 "How far is this picture of the cave man based on fact? How much of 1t is conjecture based on the as- sumption that according to the the- ory of evolution he must have been such a semi-human or non-human and none other?
 Tn my opinion much of the ob- scure thinking on this subject IS due to the lack of understanding Of very simple distinction, the dis tinction between kind of culture and depree of culture. kind of in telligence and degree of intelli- gence. For example, a savage crea- ture is a human creature, but it Is culture of a very low degree. Similarly there are, and have been. low degrees of civilization, and low degrees of intelligence, where both the civilization and the intelligence are undoubtedly human. In fact the 1 history of the human race is the 1 history of progress from low to higher and still higher degrees of culture and civilization. We have no hesitation in saying that the known facts about prehistoric man show him to have always been a man as we are. differing from us indeed in degree of mental and cultural civilization. but by no means differing from us in kind, so that of him we could say to all the