Page:The World's Most Famous Court Trial - 1925.djvu/252

248 within range of our telescopes are composed of the same sort of matter, reducible upon analysis to about eight different elements, nearly all of which are present in the earth. In other words, it is a fair sample of the material substances of the entire universe. Science has not even a guess as to the original source or sources of matter. It deals with immediate causes and effects, not at all with ultimate causes and effects. For science there is no beginning and no ending; all acceptable theories of earth origin are theories of rejuvenation rather than of creation—from nothing. Indeed, there is some evidence for the prevalent view that our sun had had at least one earlier generation of planets in its train before the disturbing effect of the close approach of another star caused the reorganization of part of its matter into our present solar system. Conversely, it is probable that at some remotely distant date in the future this group of planets, on one of which we live, will be similarly destroyed by another rejuvenating disturbance and still another cycle of planetary organization may take place.

But none of these facts is really in any way disturbing to the adherent to Christianity. Not one contradicts any teaching of Jesus Christ known to me. None of them could for his teachings deal with moral law and spiritual realities. Natural science deals with physical laws and material realities. When men are offered their choice between science, with its confident and unanimous acceptance of the evolutionary principle, on the one hand, and religion, with its necessary appeal to things unseen and unprovable, on the other, they are much more likely to abandon religion than to abandon science. If such a choice is forced upon us, the churches will lose many of their best educated young people, the very ones upon whom they must depend for leadership in coming years. Fortunately, such a choice is absolutely unnecessary. To say that one must choose between evolution and Christianity is exactly like telling the child as he starts for school that he must choose between spelling and artithmeticarithmetic [sic]. Thorough knowledge of each is essential to success—both individual and racial—in life.

Although it is possible to construct a mechanistic, evolutionary hypothesis which rules God out of the world, the theories of theistic evolution held by millions of scientifically trained Christian men and women lead inevtiablyinevitably [sic] to a better knowledge of God and a firmer faith in his effective presence in the world. For religion is founded on facts, even as is the evolutionary principle. A true religion faces the facts fearlessly, regardless of where or how the facts may be found. The theories of evolution commonly accepted tn the scientific world do not deny any reasonable interpretation of the stories of divine creation as recorded in the Bible, rather they affirm that story and give it larger and more profound meaning. This, of course, depends upon what the Bible is and what the meaning and interpretation of the stories are to each individual. I have been a Bible student all of my life and ever since my college days I have been intensely concerned with the relations between science and the Bible. I have made many addresses and have written several articles upon this subjects I have many times lectured to Biblical students, such as those in the Boston University School of Religious Education.

It is obvious to any careful and intelligent reader of the book of Genesis that some interpretation of its account must be made by each individual. Very evidently it is not intended to be a scientific statement of the order and method of creation. In the first chapter of Genesis we are told that man was made after the plants and the other animals had been formed, and that man and woman were both created on the same day; in the second chapter of Genesis we read that man was formed from the dust of the ground before plants and other animals were made, that trees grew until fruit