You may assume life of some kind omnipresent for ever throughout matter.
This is one way. Another way is to assume an act of spontaneous
generation, i.e. a transition somewhere and somewhen from absolutely
non-living to absolutely living. You cannot have it both ways. But it
seems to me that you must have it both ways. You must not begin with
life (or potential life) everywhere alone, nor must you begin with a
single spontaneous generation alone, but you must carry your spontaneous
generation (or denial of the continuity of life) down, _ad infinitum_,
just as you must carry your continuity of life (or denial of spontaneous
generation) down _ad infinitum_ and, compatible or incompatible, you must
write a scientific Athanasian Creed to comprehend these two
incomprehensibles.
If, then, it is only an escape from one incomprehensible position to
another, _cui bono_ to make a change? Why not stay quietly in the
Athanasian Creed as we are? And, after all, the Athanasian Creed is
light and comprehensible reading in comparison with much that now passes
for science.
I can give no answer to this as regards the unintelligible clauses, for
what we come to in the end is just as abhorrent to and inconceivable by
reason as what they offer us; but as regards what may be called the
intelligible parts—that Christ was born of a Virgin, died, rose from the
dead—we say that, if it were not for the prestige that belief in these
alleged facts has obtained, we should refuse attention to them. Out of
respect, however, for the mass of opinion that accepts them we have
looked into the matter with care, and we have found the evidence break
down. The same reasoning and canons of criticism which convince me that
Christ was crucified convince me at the same time that he was
insufficiently crucified. I can only accept his death and resurrection
at the cost of rejecting everything that I have been taught to hold most
strongly. I can only accept the so-called testimony in support of these
alleged facts at the cost of rejecting, or at any rate invalidating, all
the testimony on which I have based all comfortable assurance of any kind
whatsoever.