“MERE SPECULATION”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 207, 21 November 1927, Page 16

“MERE SPECULATION”

EVOLUTION ATTACKED DR. W. H. PETTIT’S ADDRESS THE BOOK OF GENESIS is in accord with every known fact of every branch of science, but theories of evolution contain as much science as “Alice in Wonderland” do.es real history. Hr. W. H. Pettit in a lecture on “Evolution in the Light of Science and the Bible,” at the Town Hall yesterday, dismissed theories of evolution as mere speculation. The general acceptance of the theories Was an amazing spectacle, no said. In spite of the pretentious claims made on its behalf, evolution still remained a philosophic speculation, and was not a scientific fact. Darwin had acknowledged that the biologist could not produce one instance of a species having been derived from another species. The recent pronouncement made by Sir Arthur Keith that the Darwinian theory was definitely established was in conflict with the opinion of many eminent biologists. ONCE AN EVOLUTIONIST The speaker said that he understood the viewpoint of evolutionists because he himself had been one, his attitude having been caused by the way biology was presented to him as a medical student. On examining the evidence in later years he found that he had been fooled into a false position and he was compelled to reverse his decision. True science dealt with facts, not theories, and the Bible agreed with true science. The evolutionist managed to “bluff” the ordinary man by confusing in his mind species with variations. God had