Q.E.D. : New Light on the Doctrine of Creation

Excerpt:

There are but two theories regarding the origin of our world and of the various forms of plants and animals upon it, Creation and Evolution,--the latter assuming many modifications.

The essential idea of the Evolution theory is uniformity; that is, it seeks to show that life in all its various forms and manifestations probably originated by causes similar to or identical with forces and processes now prevailing. It teaches the absolute supremacy and the past continuity of natural law as now observed. It says that the changes now going on in our modern world have always been in action and that these present-day natural changes and processes are as much a part of the origin of things as anything that ever took place in the past. In short, Evolution as a philosophy of nature is an effort to smooth out all distinction between Creation and the ordinary processes of nature that are now under the règime of "natural law."

On the other hand, the essential idea of the doctrine of Creation is that, back at a period called the "beginning," forces and powers were brought into exercise and results were accomplished that have not since been exercised or accomplished. That is, the origin of the first organic forms, indeed of the whole world as we know it, was essentially and radically different from the ways in which these forms are perpetuated and the world sustained to-day. Time is in no way the essential idea in the problem. The question of how much time was occupied in the work of Creation is of no importance, neither is the question of how long ago it took place.

The one essential idea is that in its nature Creation is essentially inscrutable; we can never hope to know just how it was accomplished; we cannot expect to know the process or the details, for we have nothing with which to measure it. The one essential thing in the doctrine of Creation is that the origin of our world and of the things upon it came about at some period of time in the past by a direct and unusual manifestation of Divine power; and that since this original Creation other and different forces and powers have prevailed to sustain and perpetuate the forms of life and indeed the entire world as then called into existence.

Accordingly, we might establish the Evolution doctrine by showing that matter can be made de novo, that energy can be created or increased in amount, that life can be made from the not-living, and that new and distinct forms of life can be produced in modern times,--all by natural law as now prevailing.

Or we can practically demonstrate the historical reality of a direct Creation at some time in the past, if we can show that the net results of all modern science tend to prove that the forces and processes now in operation can never account for the origin of things; that matter, and energy, and life, and the various forms of life must all have had an origin essentially different from anything now going on around us.

This indicates the line of argument adopted in the following pages.

The Evolution theory has been widely discussed and accepted in modern times. Indeed it has had a fair chance and an open field for several decades. What is the present situation of the controversy? The friends of the Bible and of old-fashioned Christianity need to know the real facts of the present situation.

Every now and then the news despatches report that the great Professor So-and-so has at last really produced life from the not-living, or has obtained some absolutely new type of life by some wonderful feat of breeding. Or some geologist or archæologist has discovered in the earth the missing link which connects the higher forms of life with the lower, or which bridges over the gulf between man and the apes. Thus many people who get their "science" through the daily papers really believe that these long-looked-for proofs of Evolution have at last been demonstrated, and hence they receive without question the confident assertions of the camp followers of science published at space rates in the Sunday supplements that all intelligent men of to-day have long ago accepted the Evolution doctrine.