Page:Genesis I-II- (IA genesisiii00grot).pdf/19

Rh all this Genesis gives an incorrect idea. When we all believed that things were suddenly and miraculously made, it could not have been immoral to teach Genesis as literal truth. But this is no longer so. Biology has been separated from her theological mother and she has taken her place as entitled to give her own testimony. The study of Genesis, or the origin of things, Religion must surrender to the Sciences because, from the very nature of things, Religion cannot come to any conclusion in the premises that can and will be fully accepted. Her kingdom is not of this world.

In the following pages I have given the original and the translation of the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis, together with a criticism upon them. From this I think it will be seen that those of us who have studied the matter are free to reject the story as a solid inspired account on its own merits. For us this account of the origin of things must take its rank as a fairytale, something that was pleasant to believe and arose naturally as the result of a limited experience, but that is no longer to be accepted as true. One reason for its being clung to is that we part with old traditions slowly, because they are easier for us to handle mentally than the newer ideas. But it seems to me that the intellectual world is progressing in this direction and that to aid it in any way, however humbly and inefficiently, is praiseworthy and is what is needed at the present time. For the scholar needs activity in which to work, but not confusion and bitter strife. He works to aid the transformation of society and ideas so that men's minds may be modified without too much jarring. To day increasing knowledge is changing out conceptions more than ever upon once seemingly settled matters in social life and religion. And it is thus particularly a time for the exercise of tolerance and good temper so that we may offend each other as little as possible, neither make difficulties, nor disconcert the carriage of society. It is certainly in this spirit that the present criticism of the creation story of Genesis is written.