'CREATION AND EVOLUTION’

Evening Star, Issue 19661, 14 September 1927, Page 11

'CREATION AND EVOLUTION ’

DR PETTIT’S SECOND LECTURE Dr Pettit, of Auckland, gave the second of his series of lectures on ‘ Questions of the Hour ’ at Knox Church last evening. Mr T. R. Fleming was in the chair. Taking as his subject ‘ Creation and Evolution,’ tho speaker stated that tho history of human thought presented a spectacle no more amazing than the general acceptance of tho evolutionary philosophy, 'for evolution, in spite of all the nretentious claims made on its behalf, still remained a philosophic speculation and not a scientific fact. Darwin himself had acknowledged that the biologist could not produce one instance of a species having been derived from, another species. Tins was 'dually true to-da.v. Sir Arthur Keith’s recent pronouncement that the Darwinian theory was definitely established was in conflict with the position taken by many of the most eminent biologists. Professor Bateson said in 1914; “We have no facts. Wo have no right oven to form a theory, and we are too ignorant to speculate.- Our present speculations nave about the same weight as tho speculations of the alchemists.” This statement showed that there was as much real science in evolutionary theories as there was real history in ‘ Alice in Wonderland.’ In 1922 Professor Bateson said in his Toronto address: “Wo cannot see how the differentiation into species came about. Variations of many kinds we daily witness, but no origin of species. That particular and essential bit of tho theory of evolution which is concerned with the origin and nature of species remains utterly mysterious.” It seemed amazing that Professor Bateson and most other biologists still said that they believed in some form of evolution, although in Nature there was no evidence of any species having been transformed into a dilferent species. Professor Bateson said: “In dim outline evolution is evident enough. From the facts it is a conclusion that inevitably follows.” In regard to this attitude of mind one need only point out that evolution inevitably followed only to tho man who refused to believe the record of creation. To him it was the only alternative. Every theory of evolution was faced with insuperable difficulties, for while inosb biologists believed in evolution, ail biology denied it. Evolution could not explain tho origin of lifo: it could not explain the origin of species; it would not account for the origin of man. Recognising these difficulties. the tlieistio evolutionist recognised the intervention of supernatural power to bridge the gulfs. But theistic evolution was only a partial and utterly unsatisfactory attempt to avoid the recognition of the complete breakdown of the theory of evolution when it was faced with tho facts of Nature. On the other hand, it was found that tiie record of creation given in Genesis was in perfect accord with every known fact, not only of biology, but of every other branch of science. Professor Dana, one of the greatest geologists of the last century, said; “The first thing that strikes the scientific reader in perusing the account of creation in Genesis is the evidence of divinity, not merely in the first verses and in the successive fiats, but in the whole order of creation. There is so much that the most recent readings of science have for the first time explained that the idea of man‘as.the author becomes utterly incomprehensible. By proving tho record true science pronounces it divine, for who could have correctly narrated the secrets of eternity but God Himself P” t Without any evidence evolution assumed that everything in Nature multi-plied;-if given sufficient time, but ten times _ over. In the divine record _of Genesis they were told that everything was commanded to multiply after its kind, and the more they know of God’s Voice in Nature the more completely it vindicated tho truth of this written word. - Tho supremo danger of evolution lay not in the realm of biology, but iu the carrying over of this unproved hypothesis as if it were a fact into the realm of psychology, philosophy, and theology. To-day in tho university colleges the flower of our youth was being taught that the mental, moral, and spiritual attributes of man had arisen by an evolutionary process from tho instincts of tho lower animals. Once evolution was accepted, tho divine record of the fall of man and tho sinfulness of human nature was repudiated; hence there was no need for the atoning work of the Cross of Christ, which was the very foundation of tho Christian faith. Therefore thnv saw that the evolutionary philosophy had become the corner stone of the higher critical theories concerning the Scriptures, and also of the popular modern systems of theology, which wore to-day denying every foundation truth of tho Scriptures, which denied the Deity, the Atonement, and the Resurrection of Christ—denied them in the name not only of science, but as the highest expression of Christianity itself.