The New Zealand Tablet WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1925. THE BIBLE AND SOME BIOLOGISTS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 10, 18 March 1925, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1925. THE BIBLE AND SOME BIOLOGISTS

For a discussion of the problems raised concerning the Bible and Geology and the Bible and Astronomy we refer our readers to the Catholic Encycloepdia or to an authoritative work on Apologetics. Merely as a sample of the sort of science brought forward by Rationalists .and Atheists we will deal briefly with the objections brought against the Biblican account of the origin of life. Our position is this: God, by an act of His will created the world, including animals and plants to which he gave the power of reproduction. Against this, Rationalists are found who allege, without a shadow of proof, that living creatures came not only from per-existing germs but even solely from the influence of chemical and physical forces inherent in matter. They say that a living being can be brought into life without pre-existing life, by the simple effects of physico-chemical action or reaction. They argue that if this can be done, there is no reason why it was not always done, and that hence the hypothesis of creation of living organisms is at least superfluous. The first thing to remark is that the alleged fact of purely spontaneous generation has never been proved. The second is that even as a hypothesis it is rejected by the most competent authorities. Flourens says: "No one since Redi believes any longer in the spontaneous generation of insects; that of intestinal worms finds no defenders since Balbiani, and since the experiments of Pasteur,, it has generally been abandoned in regard to every kind of animalculae. Quatrefages says: "We consider the doctrine of spontaneous generation definitely condemned." Virchow says: "Not a single positive fact is known to prove that there

has ever been such a thing as spontaneous generation, or that organic matter has been spontaneously transformed into an organic being." The greatest authority of & all, Pasteur, says: "There has never been known a single instance of beings coming into the world without parents. Those who affirm the contrary are victims of illusions or of causes which they could not appreciate or which they did not remove." After Pasteur's experiments, confirmed by those of Schwann, Schultze, Milne-Edwards, and many others, the Academy of Sciences announced this fundamental law of biological science: All organised beings in the actual state of our globe receive life from bodies already living; large and small are bom of ancestry. Hence, there is no room for doubt that spontaneous generation is a myth and a delusion. Even if it were true, we might still ask whence came the matter, the physical and chemical forces, and the • changes that brought the elements into juxtaposition. And we should still, have to go back to a First Cause to explain their existence. Science proves that life has not always existed on earth; that it had a beginning; and that no living creature ever yet existed that did not spring from another. Now as they had a beginning and did not spring from matter we are again brought back to the doctrine of creation in order to explain the riddle of the universe: we find, that is to say, that the Biblical account is sustained instead of upset by true science. Hence we have Virchow frankly admitting that we come face to face wrh the need for a higher causality; and wo have even Haeckel saying that if we reject spontaneous generation we must admit miracles. Again, scientists say that as there was a time when there was no living thin;! on earth, there will come a time when all life shall disappear from earth. The stars have in some cases lost their heat and light; the sun is cooling and will go on cooling until it will not radiate enough heat to enable living things to exist on our planet. Thus, as regards the end of the world, as well as with reference to the beginning, science supports rather than opposes the Bible.

We might, if time and space allowed, take up in the same way, problems of geology astronomy, paleontology and find in each examination the same fact verified: that there is no opposition between ascertained scientific truth and the real meaning of the Bible, but that on the contrary as progress is made, an dscience becomes richer, the Mosaic account is wonderfully borne out and supported by research and study in every department of natural science.