THEORY OF EVOLUTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19799, 21 November 1927, Page 11

THEORY OF EVOLUTION.

"NOT A SCIENTIFIC FACT." TEACHING OF THE BIBLE. "There is as much real science in evolutionary theories as there is real history in 'Alice in Wonderland,' " said Dr. W. H. Pettit in a lecture, "Evolution in the Light of Science and the Bible," given in the Town Hall concert chamber yesterday afternoon. Dr. Pettit said the history of human thought presented no more amazing spectacle than the general acceptance of the evolutionary philosophy. In spite of the pretentious claims made on its behalf, evolution still remained a philosophy speculation, and was not a scientific fact. Darwin had acknowledged that the biologist could not produce one instance of a species having been derived from another species. The fact was equally true at the present time. The recent pronouncement made by Sir Arthur Keith that jibe Darwinian theory was definitely established was in conflict with the opinion of many eminent biologists. In ; 1914 Professor Bateson said: "We have no facts. We have no right even to form a theory, and we are too ignorant to speculate. Our present speculations have about the same weight as the speculations of the alchemists." Every theory of evolution, Dr. Pettit 6aid, was faced with insuperable difficulties. While most biologists believed in evolution, all hiology denied it. j Evolution could not explain the origin of life, it could not explain the origin of species, and it would not j\pcount for the origin of man. Recognising the difficulties, the theistic evolutionist admitted the intervention of supernatural povor to bridge the gulfs. How- / ever, theistic evolution was only a partial and utterly unsatisfactory attempt to avoid the complete breakdown of the theory of evolution when it was faced with the facts of nature. On the other hand, the speaker continued, it was found that the record of creation given in the Book of Genesis was in perfect accord with every known fact, not only of biology, but of every other branch of science. "To-day in the university colleges," he added, "the flower of our youth is being taught that the mental, moral and spiritual attributes of man have arisen by an evolutionary process from the n;stincts of the lower animals. Once evolution is accepted, the divine record ot the fall of man and the sinfulness of human nature is repudiated, hence there is no need for the atoning work of the Cross of Christ —the very foundation of the Christian faith." SCIENCE AND RELIGION. CANON ARCHDALL'S VIEWS. A sermon on "Evolution and Religion was delivered at St. Mary's Cathedral last evening by Canon H. K. Archdall, headmaster of King's College. He first pointed out that the Christian doctrine of the creation of the world by God was in no way radically affected by scientific teaching. On the other hand, modern science had enriched our knowledge of the method cf the creative process. From the days of the Greek philosophers tho various species were thought to have been derived from other species by some unknown law. This view had also been held by the Greek philosophers and the theologians of the Middle Ages. Only since the sixteenth century had mechanical verbal inspiration been so strongly insisted on, a tendency which had been helped bv Milton in Paradise Lost, and though devoid of Biblical or church authority, it had become widely accepted. The main religions value of the Genesis itory of the Creation lay in the belief in the activity of one Eternal God as Creator, and not in details of primitive folk-lore. Natural science was not necessarily allied with the philosophy of materialism. Science was not concerned to argue that the world made itself or that natural selection was more than a testing P r "}" ciple. Neither did science do away with the aspect of sin and failure. It rather heightened perception of the danger of remaining stationary or developing m a purely one-sided manner. Tho problem of religion was to keep ftlive the divine impuls£»which urged man tin to the higher life. The virtue of Christ's atonement had to be manifested to the world. The allegorical interrretotion of the story of the fall of man as described in Genesis was common as early lis the fourth century, and although the story of the serpent that spoke was merely primitive folk-lore, it contained the imperishable truth of the fall of man from the perfect life by his yielding to Ihe lower impulses and failinc to always follow the creative impulse of the spirit of God within him.