HOW LIFE EVOLVED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 135, 10 June 1927, Page 7

HOW LIFE EVOLVED.

J No Conflict Between Science and j Religion. 'SIR OLIVER LODGES VIEWS.! LOXDON, June 9. In the course of an address to the | members of the Oxford Psychological j Society, Sir Oliver Lodge said:—"l regard it as probable, indeed, almost inevitable, that life will some day be i created by biologists in their labora- j tories. " This idea is not repugnant to religion. It must rather be welcomed, as showing the amount of thought that is! necessary to produce any imitation oi | what already exists. ! •'We must not be afraid of scientific! progress. The earth was once a molten | mass, in which life was impossible, yet j life somehow and at some time developed j out of it. " What has happened in the past may be understood by human beings and j brought about in the future. i " Many may fear such a conclusion.' believing that such a self-acting I mechanism would remove from the uni- j verse the need fora planning and creative I mind. ■ "Such fears were groundless, because! a chemist who could make such a vitalised protoplasm was not himself a sell- | acting machine. '• He could not create life unless he ■ himself were fully alive and had adequate I knowledge. Therefore life still could not be created without antecedent life." Sir Oliver ended his speech with a vivid j picture of the creation of new worlds, in | which glowing gases were lirst liquified ' and then gradually cooled and soliditied i until the localised individual particles oi matter became capable of receiving ami j incorporating some of the general mind of which the ether"must be full Gradually, through ace-long stages.: particles developed until the reiga of i individual consciousness began. culminating in man. " I believe the ether is the physical ; concomitant of the .Supreme Mind, of which we are conscious of only an infinitesimal fraction.— ( Sydney "S'un."'i