Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/37

 Surely if unintelligent nature were the creator or evolver she would continue the process, and there would be no such thing as fixed species, since without intelligence nothing would arrive at fixed conditions. Evolution would be a fact to-day, and we would see about us fish becoming birds, and monkeys becoming men. This theory we conclude to be as contrary to human reason as to the Bible, when it claims that intelligent beings were created by a power lacking in- telligence.

One theory regarding the creation (excepting man) by a process of evolution, to which we see no serious objection, we briefly state as follows : It assumes that the various spe- cies of the present are fixed and unchangeable so far as na- ture or kind is concerned, and though present natures may be developed to a much higher standard, even to perfection, these species or natures will forever be the same. This theo- ry further assumes that none of these fixed species were originally created so, but that in the remote past they were developed from the earth, and by gradual processes of evolu- tion from one form to another. These evolutions, tinder divinely established laws, in which changes of food and climate played an important part, may have continued until the fixed species, as at present seen, were established, be- yond which change is impossible, the ultimate purpose of the Creator in this respect, to all appearance, having been reached. Though each of the various families of plants and animals is capable of improvement or of degradation, none of them Js susceptible of change into, nor can they be pro- duced from, other families or kinds. Though each of these may attain to the perfection of its own fixed nature, the Creator's design as to nature having been attained, further change in this respect is impossible.

It is claimed that the original plants and animals, from which present fixed varieties came, became extinct before

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