Before presenting the motive that led some of the great minds in
unbelief to advocate the Darwinian theory of creation, it will not be
amiss to remind the reader of the fact that the author of the "Vestiges
of Creation" presented the evolution theory about twenty years before
Mr. Darwin excited the public mind with the "hypothesis." Men who read
the "Vestiges" looked upon the assumption as a speculation, but refused
its adoption until Mr. Darwin, for the purpose of setting aside the
idea of separate creations of species, improved so far upon the
"Vestiges of Creation" as to repudiate design in nature. Having done
this, many of the leading spirits in skepticism, with a few great minds
in unbelief, at once accepted the wild speculation. Their motive may be
seen in the following quotations: "The eye was not made for the purpose
of seeing, or the ear for the purpose of hearing. Organisms, according
to Darwin, are like grape-shot, of which one hits something and the rest
fall wide." (Lay sermons, p. 331.) According to the above it appears
that Huxley regarded the evolution of species, as advocated by Darwin,
as identical with the old, effete idea that circumstances have
determined everything. Buchner says, "According to Darwin the whole
development is due to the gradual summation of innumerable minute and
accidental operations." This is the same idea. Carl Vogt says, "Darwin's
theory turns the Creator, and his occasional intervention in the
revolutions of the earth and in the production of species, without any
hesitation, out of doors, inasmuch as it does not leave the smallest
room for the agency of such a being." Haeckel says, "The grand
difficulty in the way of the mechanical theory was the occurrence of
innumerable organisms, apparently, at least, indicative of design." He
further says, "Some who could not believe in a creative and controlling
mind, to get over the difficulty of apparent design, adopted the idea of
a metaphysical ghost called vitality." He then presents his estimate of
the service of Darwin in the following words: "The grand service
rendered by Darwin to science is that his theory enables us to account
for the appearances of design without assuming final causes, or, a mind
working for a foreseen and intended end."
Strauss, after making the admission that the evolution theory is a mere
guess, that it is no explanation of the cardinal points in descent,
adds: "Nevertheless, as he has shown how miracles may be excluded, he is
to be applauded as one of the greatest benefactors of the human
race."--_Old Faith and New, p. 177._
The same author says: "We philosophers and critical theologians have
spoken well when we decreed the abolition of miracles; but our decree
remained without effect, because we could not show them to be
unnecessary, inasmuch as we were unable to indicate any natural force to
take their place. Darwin has provided or indicated this natural force,
this process of nature; he has opened the door through which a happier
posterity may eject miracles forever."
Helmholtz says: "Adaptation in the formation of organisms may arise
without the intervention of intelligence by the blind operation of
natural law." This author confounds law with cause or agent. "Law is
nothing without an agent to operate by it." Law is simply a rule of
action. Let us hear Strauss once more: "Design in nature, especially in
the department of living organisms, has ever been appealed to by those
who desire to prove that the world is not SELF-EVOLVED (capitals mine),
but the work of an intelligent Creator."--_Old Faith and New, p. 211._
On page 175 Strauss says of those who ridicule Darwin's evolution
hypothesis and yet deny miracles: "How do they account for the origin of
man, and, in general, the development of the organic out of the
inorganic? Would they assume that the original man, as such, no matter
how rough and unformed, but still a man, sprang immediately out of the
inorganic, out of the sea or the slime of the Nile? They would hardly
venture to say that; then they must know that there is only the choice
between miracle, the divine hand of the Creator, and Darwin." According
to this statement every man is left to one of three conclusions, viz:
1. That man came up immediately _as man_ from the inorganic, or from the
slime of the Nile, or from some other slimy place. Or,
2. That man was evolved from the lowest forms of life, according to
Darwinism. Or,
3. That man was created by the divine hand, according to Christian
belief.
Reader, which will you accept. Will you dethrone the Creator?
Choose you this day between the Creator and the slime of the sea with
the sun's rays. What does Darwin know about the origin of life and
mind? I am informed that he believes in a God, who, by miracle, gave the
living unit at the base of his evolutionary series, but it seems to be
an admission for the sake merely of avoiding disaster, for he says: "In
what manner the mental powers were first developed in the lowest
organisms is as _hopeless an inquiry_ as how life itself _first
originated_. These are problems for the distant future, if they are ever
to be solved by man."--_Descent of Man, p. 66._ This is an open
confession; in it all is given up.
I am now reminded of one of the last sayings of Strauss; here it is: "We
demand for our universe the same piety which the devout man of old
demanded for his God." This brings us to the same standard of piety.
Then why the opposition?
Strauss denied a personal God. Of his mental condition we learn
something from these words: "In the enormous machine of the universe,
amid the incessant whirl and hiss of its jagged iron wheels, amid the
deafening crash of its ponderous stamps and hammers--in the midst of
this whole terrific commotion, man, a helpless and defenseless creature,
finds himself placed, not secure for a moment, that on an imprudent
motion a wheel may not seize and rend him, or a hammer crush him to a
powder. This sense of abandonment is at first SOMETHING AWFUL."
(Capitals mine.) Reader, the religion of Jesus Christ will save you from
the terrible mental condition which is legitimate from a denial of God
and his Christ. Will you accept it and experience the fact?