Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/21



theories of creation may be classified under two divisions. In the first division are those holding that nature in herself is sufficient to create and to evolve by the unaided operations of her inherent forces. Those who so believe are distinguished as Materialists. In the second division are the theories maintaining that nature unaided is incompetent to create or to evolve, and which therefore advocate the existence of a supernatural first cause. Their adherents are properly called Supernaturalists. The term is sufficiently broad to comprehend all who have any idea of God, even when He is conceived of as a universally diffused substance higher than nature.

The popular theory of the Materialist is that of Evolution. The theory of Evolution generally understood when the word is used without modification as the name of a system of thought, is the doctrine of the descent of all species and genera of plants and animals from a few primary forms, or from one, through the inherent forces