MODERN MAN AND GORILLA

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 178, 18 October 1927, Page 1

MODERN MAN AND GORILLA

. Products of Same Machinery STRIKING SERMON BY DR. BARNES rE sensation caused by the public denunciation as a heretic of Bishop Barnes, of Birmingham, has not yet died down. The Bishop delivered a striking sermon, discussing the creation of man in the light of modern theories of science. The man who denounced him, the Rev. G. R. BullockWebster, has made a statement in which he expresses the hope that his dramatic protest will lead to some action.

By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright.

Reed. 9.5 a.m LONDON, Monday. TJR. BARNES, in his striking sermon at St. Paul’s, made not the slightest reference to the scene caused by his denunciation as a heretic. He discussed whether man’s creation was the result of a blind mechanism or Divine design. He urged that scientific survey gives nothing to encourage us to repudiate the belief that man’s creation was Divinely planned. Gorilla and civilised man were products of the same machinery, but there had been an unexpected variation in the case of man. It was natural to think that this variation was a step in the Divine plan. “If Christians regard God as contriving and slowly maturing a plan by which the human race ha* been brought to existence, modern science has no argument

against them,” he said. “I am convinced that the purpose of evolution is revealed in the moral and spiritual development of humanity.” The Rev. G. R. Bullock-Webster handed interviewers a typed statement, stating inter alia: Dr. Barnes might reasonably try to photograph the blessed angels or appl?/ X-rays to distinguish between the baptised and the unbaptised. Dr. Barnes defies anyone to distinguish by the eye between consecrated and unconsecrated water. We equally defy any stranger to distinguish between Dr. Barnes and his butler without distinguishing them by their garments; but that does not prove that Dr. Barnes has not been consecrated. I hope the protest will lead to action.” —A. and N.Z.