THEORIES OF EVOLUTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21118, 27 February 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

THEORIES OF EVOLUTION.

RELIGION AND SCIENCE. Dean Inge, in a recent lecture in London, discussed 111 c relations between modern scientific theories on the evolution of the universe and tho -Christian tradition of ureal ion. People were now convinced he said, that the writers of the early hooks of the Old Testament knew much less of (he early history of the world than ihev did themselves. The complete absence in historical Christianity of any idea of evolution ill man, and of progress for society, was a matter of great importance for the understanding of Church history. It was no use to look for any ideas of evolution ami progress in Christianity before tho modern period; they were not there or were to be found only in tho independent sects disowned by "t he til-eat Church. In historical Christianity, down almost to the present day, evolution was purely individual and was confined to tho present life, which was to be followed by u static condition, either of rest and enjoyment, or of unending torment. It was thus plain that the idea of permanence or stability was overemphasised and tho values of change, movement, and progress were unduly neglected. The modern philosophy of movement had, in the lecturer's opinion, gone further astray in denying the values of permanence or stability altogether. The necessarv effect of tho modern attitude was to disparage tho past, and in religion, instead of St. Paul's exhortation to " grow up into Christ in all things," the Catholic Modernists accepted the idea of a church which had grown, almost by historical accident, out of the career of Jesus of Nazareth into an organisation which bore few traces of His spirit. They must not undervalue the deep tranquillity and security which, in earlier times, surrounded the Christian, often in the midst of turbulent external conditions. Art, which was tho world's memory of things, expressed rest and permanence. Nevertheless, the time came when over-emphasis on the permanent was felt to bo paralysing. At tho Renaissance Western Europe revolted against it. The dean said he had no wish to pour rold water on the secular hopes of the time. They might, indeed, look forward to a higher stato of civilisation with a more equitable distribution of the instruments of happiness than the world had yet seen. But, they had here 110 continuing city, neither they themselves nor the species to which they belonged. Their citizenship was in Heaven, in the eternal world to which even in this life they might ascend in heart and mind. Tn all their hopes for the future of humanity there was a sense in which it might be truly said that other worldliness alone could transform this world.

PRODUCING lODINE EGGS. For some time attempts have been marie in American and Continental poultry farms to produce eggs containing a high proportion of iodine, which can he assimilated far more easily bv the human organism in this way than when the ding is administered direct. Mrs. Janosi, a poultt'V farmer living in Zuglo, near Budapest, lias succeeded in producing eggs .wliich contain .169 milligramme of iodine without any unusual taste being perceptible, and her achievement is regarded as so important that it was recently made public in a special edition of a German medical journal. lodine egg cures will now be available, and persons who are unable to digest the medicament, may benefit from it without discomfoit. RADIO-CONTROLLED GATESA wealthv Californian oil man has installed a pair of radio-controlled gates to keep intruders off Kis estate. A visitor announces himself by means of a telephone on the gatepost. An occupant of the house presses a button, and the massive gate unlocks itself and swings open with the aid of a hidden motor. Cars used by members of the family arc equipped with radio transmitters that will open the gate. Thus they may drive in without stopping, merely touching a dashboard button to start the gate motor. The pair of gates arc said to have cost 10,000 dollars to install. ELECTRICITY AND WHITEWASH. Whitewash dropped on sections of a British railway aids maintenance gangs in finding bends and rough spots which otherwise might escape their notice. _ A whitewash car makes regular inspection tours over tho line, and an electrical apparatus causes a quart of the whitewash to splash 011 the track at every point where the car sways too far. Repairmen follow the car and fix the Track at these points.