Evolution harmonizes with atheism and kindred false theories. This
raises a presumption against its truth, as falsehood does not agree
with the truth. It is reconcilable with infidelity and atheism, but
not with Christianity. Many, like Prof. Coulter, of the Chicago
University, endeavor to show that evolution is reconcilable with
_religion_--and he does show that it harmonizes with the religion
of deism or infidelity. No one doubts that evolution harmonizes with
atheism or the religion of Thomas Paine. But why should we be anxious
to reconcile it with Christianity, when there is so little truth to
support it?
Many evolutionists are atheists. Some believe in the eternity of
matter. This can not be. Both mind and matter can not be eternal. Mind
controls matter; and not matter, mind. Hence the mind of God created
matter.
Some believe the universe came into being by its own power, though
that can not be. Power or force cannot create itself. It must be
attached directly or indirectly to a person. No force can be
disconnected from its cause. Detached force is unthinkable. All force
in the universe can be traced to God. Much of the physical power of
the earth can be traced to the sun,--storms, cataracts, steam,
electricity,--and the sun gets its power from God. Gravitation,
extensive as the universe, is but the power of God in each case.
The total force in the universe _is_ beyond calculation. It is a
part of the power of Almighty God. It approaches infinity. All heat is
convertible into power, and power into heat. Heat, when converted into
power, moves the mighty engines. The power of Niagara may be converted
into heat and light. The sun had lifted the waters of the whole
Niagara River, and the lakes far above the Falls. Its power is
enormous. It lifts up over 1,000,000,000,000 tons of water to the
clouds every day,--more than all the rivers and streams pour into the
seas. The sun equals in size a pile of more than a million worlds like
ours. Every square yard of surface of this enormous sphere, has enough
heat to push a great liner across the sea,--as much power as in many
tons of coal. The amount of heat in the surface of the sun, consisting
of more than 2,284,000,000,000 sq. mi., can hardly be imagined. The
heat of one sq. mi. (3,097,600 sq. yds.) would drive 3,000,000 ships
across the sea,--150 times as many as are afloat. More than
2,200,000,000 times as much heat as the earth receives, goes out into
space. And this enormous amount of heat is but a poor fraction of the
heat of 400,000,000 suns, few of which are so small as ours.
A single star, Betelguese, has recently been computed to be
215,000,000 mi. in diameter, and therefore larger than 10,000,000 suns
like ours. A still more recent computation shows stars even
larger. Antares is 390,000,000 mi. in diameter, equal, to 91,125,000
suns, or 136,687,500,000,000 worlds. If our sun were in the centre of
this sun, it would extend beyond the orbit of Mars. Alpha Hercules is
300,000,000 mi. in diameter. Some stars are so far away that it takes
light 60,000 years to reach us, at the rate of 186,000 mi. in a
second. Some say there are 400,000,000 enormous suns. Compute, if you
can, the sum total of the power causing the light and heat, and the
power of gravitation controlling these vast swarms of stars. All this
power is the power of God, and a weak fraction of the total. This
power could not originate itself. It could not grow. It could not come
by evolution. It could not come by chance.
The doctrine of the Conservation of Force, accepted by scientists,
proves that no part of force can be lost. A God of infinite power is
required to create, maintain and control this vast universe. Force can
no more create itself than matter. God must create and preserve both.
It takes almighty power to maintain the universe in existence, as well
as to create it.
If atheism be true, then, if there was even one germ to start with, as
most admit, it must have created itself, unless the absurd claim that
it came from another world, riding on a meteorite, be entertained. If
such a foolish assumption were possible, it would require a God to
create it in another world.
"The fool hath said in his heart, 'No God'." Some translators would
supply the words omitted by the Hebrew, and make it read: "The fool
hath said in his heart, '_There is_ no God'." Others, "The fool
hath said in his heart, '_I wish there were_ no God'." It is hard
to tell which is the bigger fool, the man who refuses to see the
countless evidences of design, proving His existence; or the man who
refuses to see the terrible wreck of the great universe, and the awful
chaos that would result if there were no God. We can imagine only one
greater fool than either: The man who thinks he can get the world to
believe, under cover of evolution, that there is no God, and that all
things were evolved by chance, even though it be camouflaged by the
terms "natural selection" or "natural law."
Atheism implies spontaneous generation, which is entirely without
proof. Indeed, if spontaneous generation were possible at the
beginning of life, it is possible now, and has been possible during
all the ages. But no proof of it has been given. On the contrary, all
efforts to secure, by chemistry, the lowest forms of life from dead
matter have been without avail. Dr. Leib, of Chicago University, made
earnest efforts to do so. He failed utterly. If nature, aided by the
genius of man, can not now produce the lowest forms of life from
matter, how could it ever have been done? Prof. Huxley filled jars
with sterilized water, and placed in it sterilized vegetation, and
sealed them up, and after 30 years, no life was seen, disproving
spontaneous generation. Pasteur proved that, if milk were sterilized,
there would be no development of life by spontaneous generation. This
discovery was of immense practical value, making milk safe to use.
Prof. Tyndall, the distinguished physicist, said: "If matter is what
the world believes it to be, materialism, spontaneous generation, and
evolution, or development, are absurdities too monstrous to be
entertained by any sane mind." Dr. Clark Maxwell, another
distinguished physicist, says, "I have examined all [theories of
evolution] and have found that every one must have a God to make it
work." _L'Univers_ says: "When hypotheses tend to nothing less
than the shutting out of God from the thoughts and hearts of men, and
the diffusion of the leprosy of materialism, the savant who invents
and propagates them is either a criminal or a fool." Even Darwin seems
to be conscious of a designing mind when he says, "It is difficult to
avoid personifying the word Nature. But I mean by nature only the
aggregate action and product of many natural laws." A futile effort to
exclude God. Who made these laws?
Can a theory that is consistent with false theories, like chance and
atheism be true? Truth is consistent with truth, but not with
falsehood. We can judge a theory by the company it keeps. Evolution
naturally affiliates with false theories rather than with the
truth. It favors infidelity and atheism. A theory in perfect harmony
with manifest error, raises a presumption against its truth.
Evolution seems to have a natural attraction for erroneous hypotheses
and manifests the closest kinship with impossible theories. This is
not a mark of a true theory.
So baneful has been the effect of teaching evolution as a proven
hypothesis, that multitudes have been led into infidelity and
atheism. Prof. James H. Leuba, of Bryn Mawr College, Pa., sent a
questionaire to 1000 of the most prominent scientists teaching
sciences relating to evolution. The replies indicate that more than
one-half do not believe in a personal God, nor the immortality of the
soul,--beliefs almost universal even in the heathen world. So
pernicious is this doctrine of evolution that more than one-half of
the professors who teach it and kindred subjects, are infidels and
atheists and farther from God than the ignorant heathen. And while we
are happy in the conviction that the great majority of professors and
teachers of other subjects are Christians, yet one or two atheists or
infidels are sufficient to make havoc of the faith of many, in a great
college or university.
A doctrine so abhorrent to the conscience, so contrary to the well
nigh universal belief, and so fruitful of evil, certainly can not be
true. Small wonder is it that students are fast becoming infidels and
atheists, and we shudder as we think of the coming generation. A great
responsibility rests upon the authorities who employ such teachers.
The answers of the students in seven large representative colleges and
universities to Prof. Leuba's questionaire, show that while only 15%
of the Freshmen have abandoned the Christian religion, 30% of the
Juniors and over 40% of the Seniors have abandoned the Christian
faith. Note the steady and rapid growth of infidelity and atheism as a
result of this pernicious theory.
Will Christian parents patronize or support or endow institutions that
give an education that is worse than worthless? What the colleges
teach today the world will believe tomorrow.
Atheism, under its own name, has never had many to embrace it. Its
only hope is to be tolerated and believed under some other name. In
Russia, no man is allowed to belong to the ruling (Communist) party
unless he is an atheist. It will be a sorry world when "scientific"
atheism wins, under the name of evolution.
No one has a moral right to believe what is false, much less to teach
it, under the specious plea of freedom of thought.
It is the privilege and duty of parents to send their children to
institutions that are safe.
Nathan Leopold, Jr., and Richard Loeb kidnapped and cruelly murdered
Robert Franks. Both were brilliant scholars and atheists. Both
graduates of universities, though minors, and both were taking a
post-graduate course in the University of Chicago. It is asserted and
widely believed that they were encouraged in their atheistic belief by
the teaching of evolution and modernism, and were thus prepared to
commit a crime that shocked the world.
Most of the writers who advocated evolution became atheists or
infidels; most of the professors who teach it, believe neither in God
nor the immortality of the soul; and the number of students discarding
Christianity rose from 15% in the Freshman year to 40% in the
Senior. What more proof is needed?