FUNDAMENTALIST THEORIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 292, 9 December 1936, Page 6

FUNDAMENTALIST THEORIES.

A few days ago you printed a letter over the signature of Mr. J. V. Mackv containing various astounding assertions to the effect that Darwin's theory of evolution lias long Leen discredited by men of science. Nothing could lie further from the truth. Backed up, as it is, by the. most profound researches, it stands to-day more firmly entrenched than ever. Mr. Mackv invites us, as a substitute, to contemplate the picture of an anthropomorphic God picking up a handful of earth, breathing on it. and making it into a man! Undoubtedly Darwin's theory is discredited by a very large section of ecclesiastics who fear that a general acceptance of it would seriously militate against the popular acceptance of their own doctrines, although as a matter of fact, Darwin's theory is not incompatible with belief in a spirit world, or in reincarnation, or in personal immortality. Your correspondent obviously belongs to the same category as those very religious people who, .'iOO years ago, harried poor old Galileo and told him lie was an infernal liar because he said the world was round, ami went round, the sun. Curiously enough, the story of the Garden of Eden contains one, and one only, highly important psychological basic truth, which has been passed by quite unnoticed by all the ecclesiastics and theologians down through all the centuries, and which, incidentally strongly confirms Darwin's theorv. HUGH MARS TON. .