AND The New Science. AN ESSAY AND FOUR LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW YORK BAPTIST MINISTERS' CONFERENCE BY J. B. THOMAS, D. D., PASTOR FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN PIERREPONT STREET, BROOKLYN. SECOND EDITION. AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, EVOLUTION, OR SPECIAL CREATION WHICH? THE two rival propositions which I propose to discuss, each the initial point of a theory of the universe, are these: 1. The opening verse of Scripture, “IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH." 2. The enunciation of the materialistic philosophy, "IN THE BEGINNING THE UNIVERSE COMMENCED TO EVOLVE ITSELF." The first professes to be a revelation, that is, a statement of absolute truth from above downward. The second a philosophy, that is, a conclusion of approximate truth from below upward. For the first starts outside of and before the material universe, assuming the existence of God when the universe was not, either in form or substance, and asserting its absolute beginning to be through creative power. The second, beginning with a collation of present facts and inferences derived from them, ranges backward by analogical reasoning to a beginning which is confessedly not the beginning, and to a cause which is not the First Cause. For both that which began to evolve itself, and the force which set the evolution on, must have existed before the evolution began, and therefore, before the beginning this theory finds. It is, therefore, only an approximate conclusion, and does not account for the absolute origin of things. In calling these propositions "rival," I do not mean as will be seen, to imply that they are by their terms necessarily or fairly mutually exclusive—“creation by evolution" is not self-contradictory, and is accepted by many of the best minds-but only refer to the assumption of rivalry which they make who account "evolution" an exhaustive and satisfactory solution of the question at issue. Let us examine the testimony of Scripture and science relatively as to the facts involved, and see wherein they clash. First, as to the chronology of creation there is no contradiction, for there is no chronology in either: both assert a beginning, neither fixes a date. Second, as to a Creative God, science neither affirms nor denies directly, but declares him by logical measures unknowable and therefore unprovable. To this Scripture assents, nowhere seeking to prove His existence, but declaring that the "world by wisdom knew Him not" nor can "by searching find Him out." Third, as to Creation. itself, science declares the idea, in the sense of an ab |