Page:The Garden of Eden (Doughty).djvu/16

 doubt, and has educated itself to deny what is not scientifically proved, condemns religion and sides with science, and floats off, full often honestly enough, from its own standpoint, into the unknown seas of unbelief and the dark ocean of infidelity.

And common sense comes in to have its say. The Bible seems to hinge the whole fate of the human race, for countless ages, on the eating of the fruit of a single tree by one human pair. It seems to place our heavenly Father in the position of having set a snare for the first created man and woman, which they were not endued with strength to resist. It presents to us a talking serpent with powers of apt persuasion. It affirms that the man and his wife were so blind that they could not even behold their own nakedness until the eating of the forbidden fruit brought it to their sight. It makes sorrow and toil and pain and death for all mankind, even into the unknown ages, dependent on a single act of two untutored individuals, of which their myriad children were all innocent.

Thus the narrative of the Garden of Eden becomes so confused and incredible, that common sense is either forced to give way to a childlike faith in what is written, or to throw to the winds all confidence in Bible history. But can true science and true religion ever part company? Can