AMERICA AND EVOLUTION

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 24 July 1925, Page 4

AMERICA AND EVOLUTION

(To- the Editor). Sir, —At the present time a vigorous and systematic campaign is being earried on, mainly in the United States, against the doctrine of evolution. The grounds on which the doctrine is condemned are twofold —that it is opposed to tne. " ill of God, and that it is unscientific. “Flimsy” would be a mild term to apply to tfie first objection . for, as its exponents must know, the “wilL of God” takes such a strange variety of forms as to make it utterly unsafe as a short and easy guide to science, if its interpreters may be relied upon, the “will of God” lias ,-many times opposed scientific progress. Yet science has triumphed and the divine will has been forced to retire into the background. ' The most persistent apostle of reaction to-day is Mr. W illiani Jennings Bryan, and the outstanding scientific authority on his side is Air. George McCreadv Price, who, as Professor or ■Chemistry and Physics, throws the glamour of renown upon Lodi Academy, California. There are many persons in this, country who have the misfortune to be unacquainted with the name or Prof. G. McCreadv Price, or even with the name of Lodi 'Academy. He may for all that be a perfectly competent authority, though a cursory perusal or on e of his works arouses some doubt on the point. Professor Price argues that, as life undoubtedly exists on this earth and. there was once a time when it did riot exist, the most probable theory of its origin is that life was “created.” The evidence that life was evolved froth the inherent properties of matter is defective. It .is more scientific to believe that it was the work of a creative and personal will. This view has the in caleuable advantage of being scriptural as well as .scientific. The objections to Mr. Price’s theory that occur to even a non-scientific person like myself seem very difficult indeed to remove. Evolution in someiorju we know to be a fact visible to everyday observation. The growth of every human being illustrates the truth or evolution. If Prof. Price’s theory is sound, what is to be said of those well-meaning Christians who, being convinced of . tb.e truth, of Dcirwixi s views, have devoted great labour and ingenuity to proving that they are NOT in opposition to the teaching or the Bible, properly understood, but ar 0 in harmony with it ? They will have to come to* terms with Professor Price as best they can. If the Professor is right Air. Bryan must be delighted with 'that gentleman’s support for his dictum that “the Bible condemns evolution —theistic evolution as well as materialistic evolution,” both forms being condemned as “contrary to the revealed will of God.” One may therefore presume that God will in due time do what he has not so far done—that is. take such steps as may be necessary, with the invaluable aid of Air. Price, to secure the ignominious failure of all theories of evolution. It is hard to understand why God should have allowed such erroneous theories to gam , the hold unon the scientific world which they liav e somehow secured. _ In his contention that evolution a worthless hypothesis, Mr. Price appears to ignore a mass of inconvenient facts To him “creation as recorded in Genesis” is the only rational and credible explanation of the origin or life. Does' that explanation explain anything whatever? Can AD*. Price ex- , plain how something can. come out of nothing? Ha s h e ever witnessed the * process? Unless he is prepared to assert that the universe has, been created out of nothing, it would seem that the substance of which it is composed must always have been in existence. The universe as a whole could, not have had a beginning, nor can it have an end. As with time and space, the contrary is inconceivable. Life then, according to Air. Price, is something imparted, to matter by some external and hypothetical agency. If this did occur, it must have occurred ages before the creation recorded in Genesis, and therefore can hardly b e accepted as proof of that record. Ought not Air. Price to back his theory bv logical demonstration of what life actually is, and of the nature of the creative agency? He does not do so. He prefers the unknown to the known and verifiable. Who is indulging in the “unsupported guess? It is almost shocking to find that even in this modern age, those, who teach evolution in certain countries are hated as criminals 1 No doubt, some of the people in Tennessee are sincere in bolievino- the Bible to be scientifically accurate! At any rate Mr. Bryan does, ft is astoundingly marvellous that Any sane person should think iso- but there it is! Air Bryan’s firm belief reminds me of* at least one clause of I.oYVeUs “Pious Editor’s Creed” as painfully applicable: — “In short, I firmly du believe In Humbug generally, Fer it’s a .thing thet I peroeive To hev a solid rally.” -T am, etc., RATIONALIST. Normanbv.