Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/35

 mitigate the consequences of violated law accompanying the free will of man, for all human suffering is the effect of the infraction of law at some time. Survival of the Fittest also provides the minimum of pain to the entire animal kingdom. But it is strenuously denied that Survival of the Fittest or Natural Selection would ever evolve a deer and a wolf, or an ape and a man, from a common ancestor; or that without revelation from God out of heaven civilization would ever supplant barbarism; or unselfishness, selfishness; or love, hatred; or the worship of God, the worship of idols or of ancestors. Under no condition and by no possible power can the good and the true in man be developed out of the evil or false. The fatal error that has driven the ship of Evolution upon the rocks is that these plainly marked buoys along the course have been misplaced by the mirage of naturalism, or overlooked in the fogs of sodden materialism.

Because natural laws select the suitable and eliminate the unsuitable, provide for the least suffering, preserve those in whom life is the greatest delight, and conserve the highest use in all things, they are moral laws. The moral motive in the cosmic process, which is so much discussed and sought, is thus everywhere present and exemplified in all general results.