Untitled

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 809, 28 January 1955, Page 5

Sir.-The opponents of evolution must necessarily believe its oppositespecial. creation. According to them all forras of life, both animal and vegetable, appeared on earth suddenly, but they are never prepared to offer an explanation of how this came about. The wide distribution of animal and vegetable life throughout the ‘earth would. entail "special creation" in every environment suitable to a particular form of life. For example, the polar bear, to continue living at all, must have appeared in Arctic regions, and the fish on which it lives must have arrived at the same time, with its sustenance also immediately available. The anti-evolutionist cannot escape these conclusions, His "special creation" must apply to a complete earth. Another matter that has to be considered ig that of the animal forms that have become extinct, If we regard life as the result of intelligent creation, what can we think of the wisdom, or good intentions, of a creator who put the monsters of the reptilian age on the earth, without providing for their continuing existence? The story of life on the earth has been, and still largely is, one of "adapt or. perish." The idea of benevolence is completely absent from it, Your correspondent G.H.D. has written slightingly of the influence of

rationalism on the intellect. The intellect suffers serious hurt from the blighting influence of religious dogmatism. That this is so, is shown by the fact that educated people can still be found who regard the creation narratives of Genesis, Chapters 1 and 2, as historical.

C.

P.

(Invercargill).