III.

SOCIALISM EVOLUTIONARY

Socialist authorities announce through propaganda the claim to be based on the fact and not the theory of evolution. Therefore Socialists claim to be "Scientific."

This claim of "science" based on evolution is made in all their platforms and speeches delivered by Socialists in good standing.

A few expressions of this avowal of evolutionary scientific Socialism will serve:

"By Darwinism we mean, as you know, the transmutation of species by variation and natural selection-selection accomplished mainly, if not solely, by the struggle for existence. Now this doctrine of organic development and change or metamorphic evolution, which was, with its originators, Wallace and Darwin, a purely biological doctrine, was transported to the field of sociology by Spencer and applied with great power to all human institutions, legal, moral, economic, religious," etc.-Socialism, Positive and Negative, page 19, La Monte.

"Thus, both teachings, the teachings of Darwin and of Marx, the one in the domain of the organic world and the other upon the field of human society, raised the theory of evolution to a positive science."-Marxism and Darwinism, page 18.

"The logical consequences of Darwinism and of scientific evolutionism applied to the study of human society lead inexorably to Socialism, as I have demonstrated in the foregoing pages."-Enrico Ferri's Socialism and Modern Science, page 158.

"They supplement each other in the sense that, according to the Darwinian theory of evolution, the animal world develops up to the stage of man, and from then on, that is, after the animal has risen to man, the Marxian theory of evolution applies."-Marxism and Darwinism, page 33.

As expressed above, Socialists accept the theory of evolution. in regard to the material organic and inorganic creations as being "an established and exact science." They also go further and claim that the doctrine of evolution, its former development, and its future progressive effects apply to all human institutions, legal, moral economic and religious, and that the economic condition of man in the future will determine without reference to his free will, by immutable laws carrying him on to his destiny in his industrial and living conditions.

In harmony with this theory, the following from "Socialism Utopian and Scientific," page 26, is of interest:

"Calvin's creed was one fit for the boldest of the bourgeoisie of his time. His predestination doctrine was the religious expression of the fact that in the commercial world of competition success or failure does not depend upon a man's activity or cleverness, but upon circumstances uncontrollable by him. It is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth, but of the mercy of unknown superior economic powers."

The complete theory of Socialism in regard to man is a doctrine of blank despair in that it denies the effect of man's reason operating by means of free will, to work out his destiny and produce any other effects than those which were foreordained for him by a cruel and soulless operation of the laws of nature.

The theory of evolution is still only an hypothesis and the Socialist assumption that they are teaching "scientific government based on the fact of demonstrated evolution" is absurd.

There is no evidence whatever for the common genetic descent of all plants and animals from a single primitive organism.

Neither the Jewish nor Christian theologies accept the probability of evolution in regard to the origin of the life of man's body and soul which they logically assign to a great First Cause or God for his power in the creation of all things.

Both schools of theology harmonize in the theory that man has a soul, and that this soul could not have had its origin in matter; that the soul is a special creation of the Almighty, which is akin to the divinity in its attributes, that throughout its earthly existence, it is responsible to its Creator, and like God, will have immortality. This is dualism.

The Socialistic-atheistic theory of evolution rejects the assumption that the soul was created separate from matter and considers the creation of the body of man an ordinary materialistic effect. This is monism.

The Jewish and Catholic religions hold that is it quite comprehensible that God should have made use of natural evolutionary causes in the production of man's body. This doctrine will be seen in the Jewish Encyclopedia and it was also propounded by Saint Augustine in a very early day; but these theologies agree that the human soul could not have been derived through natural evolution from that of the brute. Since the soul is of a spiritual nature, therefore the soul is the effect of a special creative act of God.

The Jewish term for "day" in the story of creation does not imply that a day, as described in Genesis, was but 24 hours in duration, as the Jewish language has no expression for the periods of time, and used the word "day" without reference to its being a period of 24 hours.

From the beginning no theological authority has held by any means that the world was created in 144 hours or six calendar days, and the theory of evolution that a long period of time transpired before creation was completed, with the days each representing thousands of years is perfectly consistent with the narrative in Genesis.

The scriptures were never intended as scientific text books. If God had revealed every material fact to man, there

would not have been anything remaining for the reason of man through his free will to do.

The special faculties of man would have been idle, and he would have been unhappy from lack of accomplishment.

"The beaver builds a dam, and the bird a nest, and the bee a cell; but while beavers' dams, and birds' nests, and bees' cells are always constructed on the same model, the house of man passes from the rude hut of leaves and branches to the magnificent mansion replete with modern conveniences. The dog can, to a certain extent, connect cause and effect, and may be taught some tricks; but his capacity in these respects has not been a whit increased during all the ages he has been the associate of improving man, and the dog of civilization is not a whit more accomplished or intelligent than the dog of the wandering savage. We know of no animal that uses clothes, that cooks its food, that makes itself tools or weapons, that breeds other animals that it wishes to eat, or that has an articulate language. But men who do not do such things have never yet been found, or heard of, except in fable. That is to say, man, wherever we know him, exhibits this power-of supplementing what nature has done for him by what he does for himself."-"Progress and Poverty."

On the other hand the Socialist attitude towards a divine Creator is that of ridicule and blasphemy, and ascribes to the creator a malice towards his creatures which would be unworthy of satan in its malevolence.

Quoting from the "Origin of the Family," page 5, we find the following:

"An eternal being created human society as it is today, ' and submission to 'superiors' and 'authority' is imposed on the 'lower' classes by divine will. This suggestion, coming from pulpit, platform and press, has hypnotized the minds of men and proves to be one of the strongest pillars of exploitation. Scientific investigation has revealed long ago that human society is not cast in a stereotyped mould. As organic life on earth assumes different shapes, the result of a succession of chemical changes, so the group life of human beings develops different social institutions as a result of increasing control over environment, especially of production of food, clothing and shelter. Such is the message which the works of men like Bachofen, Morgan, Marx, Darwin, and

others, brought to the human race." The Origin of the
Family, page 5.

"By using the human art principle man augments his
vision by the telescope, the microscope and the X-ray. With
the telephone, the telegraph and wireless telegraphy he ex-
tends his power of communication-of speech. With the der-
rick and the steam shovel he adds strength to his arm.
With the railroad, steamship and airship he extends his
power of locomotion. Whence came this positive art prin-
ciple by which man may first create his design and then
work it out in substance, if not God given? It is not merely
more of the same instinct to which the animal negatively
responds in carrying out the designs impressed upon him by
the Creator of the heaven and the earth. The atheistical
biologists have not even a suggestion which covers this
great gap in their theory. Evolution from their standpoint is
a mock to common sense.

"We repeat, this discussion does not properly fall upon the process of forming man's body, but rather upon the impassable gap which separates him economically from whatsoever animal. To be cock-sure of what is without satisfactory proof to any biologist of standing; to be silent upon the latest pronouncement that 'animals do not think,' and to ignore the common, ordinary facts, in the experience of all men at all times, in all places, is audacity carried beyond the limit not merely of right reason, there is an impudence in it that savors strongly of ill-will towards Almighty God. Indeed, rebellion is the very first and the rotten, ripest fruit of malignant minds. Yet for one to declare his belief that his ancestors were not monkeys, would be a gross display of ignorance from the Socialist standard of intelligence."-Socialism, The Nation of Fatherless Children, page 71.

The adoption of atheistic evolution by the Socialists as the cause of human life, and denying dualism, which is the theory that spirit is a distinct entity from the body with attributes of immortality. The Socialists bring men to the lowest possible animal level, with no attributes above the brute and no aspirations in this life nor for the life hereafter. Hope is abandoned, and despair is adopted.