Page:The World's Most Famous Court Trial - 1925.djvu/266

262 : "Those who cavalierly reject the theory of evolution," writes Spencer, "as not adequately supported by facts seem quite to forget that their own theory is supported by no facts at all. Like the majority of men who are born to a given belief, they demand the most rigorous proof of any adverse belief but assume that their own needs none. Here we find scattered over the globe, vegetable and animal organisms numbering, of the one kind (according to Humboldt), some 320,000 species, and of the other some 2,000,000 species (see Carpenter); and if to these we add the numbers of animal and vegetable species that have become extinct, we may safely estimate the number of species that have existed, and are existing on the earth, at not less than 10,000,000. Well, which is the mast rational theory about these 10,000,000 of species? Is it most likely that there have been 10,000,000 of special creations? Or is it mast likely that by continual modifications due to a change of circumstances, 10,000,000 of varieties have been produced as varieties are being produced still? And, one might add, if the evidence indicates that all other species have arisen by evolution, is it probable that man, whose bodily structure and functions are so nearly identical with those of the mamaliamammalia [sic] and particularly the primates—that man arose in a different fashion. We have, moreover, as above indicated, the positive evidence to support this general presumptionpresumption. [sic]

Having outlined the evidence for human evolution and stated the presumption in its favor, let us turn to the evidence for special creation, as found in Genesis. Science and common sense alike inquire regarding the nature and sources of this account, if it be regarded as a true statement of the facts. Science faces the matter squarely, desiring only the right to investigate and draw unprejudiced conclusonsconclusions [sic]. The results of such investigations are not in doubt. It appears that the races about the eastern Mediterranean, like other primitive peoples, had their traditions of the origin of the world. The story in Genesis apparently descended to the early Hebrews and to their neighbors in Mesopotamia from a source far antedating the appearance of the Jews as a people and their sacred writings. Archeology and ethnology most reasonably indicate that in its origin this Hebrew-Babylonian tradition may be compared with the stories of many primitive peoples. We take the story in Genesis seriously as an account of prehistorical facts, because it is our story of creation passed down by tradition from our fathers. It is, and will remain, sacred and interesting, because it has been woven into the thought of western culture for almost 2,000 years and because of its intrinsic literary and moral qualities.

But the past history of events, whether of human or animal origins, is subject matter for scientific inquiry, and the answer of science is evolution. The very great antiquity of man, the existence at an earlier period of beings, manlike, but intermediate between man and primates, together with the facts of man's anatomy, his embryology, his physiological reactions, even his mentality, all point to bis bodily kinship with the rest of living nature. It is not true men came from monkeys, but that men, monkeys and apes all came from a common mammalian ancestry millions of years in the past.

It is more reasonable to believe that the Bible is a human document representing the history of an advance from the concept of a barbarous and vengeful Jehovah of the earlier Old Testament, through the God of righteousness and justice of the later prophets, and culminating in the concept of a Father as preached by Jesus of Nazareth.

In the foregoing statement we have considered the intellectual aspects of the doctrine of organic evolution. There remains its social aspects. Evolution is one of the basic concepts in modern thought. Suppression of a doctrine established by such overwhelming evidence is a serious matter. From the standpoint