Page:Evolution and Natural Selection in the Light of the New Church.djvu/2

2 and speculations of our modern scientists, even admitting the undoubtedly great value of their essentially scientiﬁc investigations, that is, their observations of and reasonings from proven facts, in which true science consists.

The theory of Evolution as taught by Darwin and his disciples is, that some thing or some power created, from material substances, a living germ, and from it, by some law or force inherent in those substances, all other material forms were evolved or developed without any deﬁnite plan or without any necessary sentient all-controlling power. The theory, in a condensed form, has been expressed in the following terms: "That the earliest organisms were the natural product of the interactions of ordinary inorganic matter and force. That all the forms of animal and vegetable life were successively developed from the earliest and simplest organisms. That man is only a higher animal and the lineal descendant of apes."

The doctrine of Creation as taught by the system of New Church philosophy may brieﬂy be deﬁned as follows: All substances and forces in the material world are, in and of themselves, inert or dead, but they are continually viviﬁed by the creative life or vital force within; this life being, primarily, in and from God the Creator, who is Life Itself. All vital forces exist in the spiritual world, which is as a living soul within though distinct from the material world; even as the soul of man is within though distinct from his material body; or as the "cause" is within though distinct from the "effect." All substances and forces in the material world are "effects" of substances existing, and of forces operating in the spiritual world—the world of "causes;" spiritual things being media whereby the animating life from God is conveyed to inanimate