DEBATE AFTER SERMON

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 703, 1 July 1929, Page 14

DEBATE AFTER SERMON

EVOLUTION PROS AND CONS INNOVATION AT DEVONPORT After preaching in St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church last evening on the subject of “Evolution and Christianity,” the minister, the Rev. W. Lawson Marsh, invited questions relating to his sermon. Mr. Marsh sketched the growth of the theory of evolution, explaining the views of scientists and prominent thinkers of the day. “Evolution makes no suggestion of apes becoming men, but it does hold that all life has a common origin,” he said. The theory of evolution could be likened to a large tree with spreading branches, the trunk being the original stock. “Some trouble arises because people cm not see evolution only as a description of what might have happened—the method that God might have used in preference to any other,” said Mr. Marsh. “It describes the road by which living things have travelled, but it does not say why. One cannot hold one truth in ordinary life and another in religious life. We should take some notice of evolution for, so far from denying, it confirms the Gospel. “I believe in evolution because its sets before me what would otherwise be discord, and it shows the processes of nature. So long as the scientific theory makes room for God, then it is acceptable,” Mr. Marsh said. EVOLUTION AND CREATION Whether the process of evolution was antecedent to the story of the Creation in Genesis was a question asked by the Mayor of Oevonport, Mr. E. Aldridge, who presided. Mr. Marsh did not consider that the Genesis went right hack to the beginning of nature. Its great value lay in the fact that it placed God at the beginning of things. Asked in what light he placed the life and death of Christ, Mr. Marsh said the fact that He could not be explained in evolutionary teaching was granted. To a question by a woman whether all creation in the beginning was in the image of God, the minister said he was quite ready to answer all questions, but there appeared a definite attempt to draw him. One questioner referred to a lecture given recently at the University College in which he stated the lecturer had expressed his opinion that man originated from apes. Mr. Marsh disagreed strongly with this view, stating the only theory evolution justified was that man and the ape sprang from common stock. Asked if he sided with those objecting to evolution being taught in schools, Mr. Marsh said the Education Department had been exceedingly ill-advised in selecting certain books of reference, which did not present the facts in a good form. “However, Dr. Pettit, in mak'-’g a protest against the inadequate and unfortunate selection, has no right to attach a whole series of mis-state-ments and caricatures,” he said. “My objection to his propaganda is that he is trying to force a point of view utterly repudiated by the Churches.”