The great world disaster, ushered in with the dawn of that August
morning in 1914, has already brought revolutionary changes in many
departments of our thinking. But not the least of the surprises awaiting
an amazed world, whenever attention can again be directed to such
subjects, will be the realization that we have now definitely outgrown
many notions in science and philosophy which in the old order of things
were supposed to have been eternally settled.
There are but two theories regarding the origin of our world and of the
various forms of plants and animals upon it, Creation and
Evolution,--the latter assuming many modifications.
The essential idea of the Evolution theory is _uniformity_; that is, it
seeks to show that life in all its various forms and manifestations
probably originated by causes similar to or identical with forces and
processes now prevailing. It teaches the absolute supremacy and the past
continuity of natural law as now observed. It says that the changes now
going on in our modern world have always been in action and that these
present-day natural changes and processes are as much a part of the
origin of things as anything that ever took place in the past. In short,
Evolution as a philosophy of nature is an effort to smooth out all
distinction between Creation and the ordinary processes of nature that
are now under the régime of "natural law."
On the other hand, the essential idea of the doctrine of Creation is
that, back at a period called the "beginning," forces and powers were
brought into exercise and results were accomplished that have not since
been exercised or accomplished. That is, the origin of the first organic
forms, indeed of the whole world as we know it, was essentially and
radically _different_ from the ways in which these forms are perpetuated
and the world sustained to-day. _Time_ is in no way the essential idea
in the problem. The question of _how much time_ was occupied in the work
of Creation is of no importance, neither is the question of _how long
ago_ it took place. The one essential idea is that in its nature
Creation is essentially inscrutable; we can never hope to know just how
it was accomplished; we cannot expect to know the process or the
details, for we have nothing with which to measure it. The one essential
thing in the doctrine of Creation is that the origin of our world and of
the things upon it came about at some period of time in the past by a
direct and unusual manifestation of Divine power; and that since this
original Creation other and different forces and powers have prevailed
to sustain and perpetuate the forms of life and indeed the entire world
as then called into existence.
Accordingly, we might establish the Evolution doctrine by showing that
matter can be made _de novo_, that energy can be created or increased in
amount, that life can be made from the not-living, and that new and
distinct forms of life can be produced in modern times,--all by natural
law as now prevailing.
Or we can practically demonstrate the historical reality of a direct
Creation at some time in the past, if we can show that the net results
of all modern science tend to prove that the forces and processes now in
operation can never account for the origin of things; that matter, and
energy, and life, and the various forms of life must all have had an
origin essentially different from anything now going on around us.
This indicates the line of argument adopted in the following pages.
The Evolution theory has been widely discussed and accepted in modern
times. Indeed it has had a fair chance and an open field for several
decades. What is the present situation of the controversy? The friends
of the Bible and of old-fashioned Christianity need to know the real
facts of the present situation.
Every now and then the news despatches report that the great Professor
So-and-so has at last really produced life from the not-living, or has
obtained some absolutely new type of life by some wonderful feat of
breeding. Or some geologist or archæologist has discovered in the earth
the missing link which connects the higher forms of life with the
lower, or which bridges over the gulf between man and the apes. Thus
many people who get their "science" through the daily papers really
believe that these long-looked-for proofs of Evolution have at last been
demonstrated, and hence they receive without question the confident
assertions of the camp followers of science published at space rates in
the Sunday supplements that all intelligent men of to-day have long ago
accepted the Evolution doctrine.
But in spite of the quick dissemination of news and the universal spread
of education, it seems but a slow process for the really important
discoveries of modern science to filter down through such media as the
current periodicals to the rank and file of society. The situation seems
to illustrate the old adage that a lie will travel round the world while
truth is getting on her shoes. _Thus it happens that the common people
are still being taught in this second decade of the twentieth century
many things that real scientists outgrew nearly a generation ago, and
assertions are still being bandied around in the individual sciences
which are wholly unwarranted by a general survey of the whole field of
modern natural science_. Indeed, in almost every one of the separate
sciences the arguments upon which the theory of Evolution gained its
popularity a generation or so ago are now known by the various
specialists to have been blunders, or mistakes, or hasty conclusions of
one kind or another. Thus the market value of all the various subsidiary
stocks of the Evolution group has been steadily declining in their
respective home markets, and now stands away below par; while strange to
say the stock of the central holding company itself is still quoted at
fictitiously high figures.
This curious--not to say deplorable--situation has developed largely
because of the modern system of strict specialization in the various
departments of science. Each scientist feels compelled by an unwritten
but rigid code of professional ethics to confine himself strictly to the
cultivation of the little plot of ground on which he happens to be
working, and is forbidden to express an opinion about what he may know
has been discovered on another plot of ground on which his neighbor is
working, except by express permission. In other words, science teaching
has now become strictly a matter of authority, this authority being
vested in the various specialists; and nobody is permitted to look at it
in a broad way, or to frame a general induction from the sum of all the
facts of nature now discovered, under penalty of scientific
excommunication. The scientific code of ethics forbids any general view
of the woods: each man must confine himself to the observation of the
particular tree in front of his own nose.
But these pages have been prepared under the idea that it is high time
to take a more general survey of the geography, time to take our eyes
off the various individual trees, and to look at the woods. Perhaps in
some respects they may be regarded as too technical for ordinary
readers. But if this is the case, it is because the writer had to choose
between this somewhat technical treatment of the subject and the
alternative danger of making loose and inaccurate statements or dealing
in glittering generalities too vague to carry conviction. As it is, the
writer is here trying to give directly to the general public the results
of years of special research in correlating the data from many scattered
departments of science,--results that most scientists would feel obliged
to reserve for the select few of some learned society, to be published
subsequently in the Reports of its "Transactions," and to find their way
after years of delay into the main currents of human thought. But these
dilatory methods of professional pedantry, miscalled "ethics," shall not
longer be allowed to delay the publication of highly important
principles which the public are entitled to know at once, and to know at
first hand. Then, too, it is more than doubtful if any purely academic
body could be found willing to become responsible for giving to the
world conclusions so contrary to the vogue of the present day.
That these brief chapters may clear up the doubts of some, and encourage
the faith of many, is the object of their publication in this
non-professional form.
G. McC. P.