Does science aid faith in regard to creation?

Front matter

PRINCETON, N. J.

Shelf.

BS 651 .C67 1883 Cotterill, Henry, 1812-1886, Does science aid faith in regard to creation?

Chapter I. Apostolic Definition 11-22

First Article of the Christian Faith — First Principle in all Religion — In Heb. xi. 3, definition of the Faith as derived from Genesis — The /Eons here the Days of Creation — The Word the Agent in Creation — Language of Genesis Symbolic — Purpose of the Sacred History.

Chapter II

Religious Value of Faith as to Creation— The History given for Man, and therefore not Scientific— Speaks of Causes beyond Human Knowledge, and therefore only describes Results— Could not use the Language of Physical Science because such Language never can be the Whole Truth — Instance as regards Creation of Light.

vi Analytical Table of Contents.

Chapter III. Page

Creation of Light first act in Creation, because of Relation of Light to Visible Universe — Light medium of Communication between the Creation and Reason — First Day, therefore the Lord's Day — Light represents to man God's glory — Reveals it to the Spirit of Man— "The Lilies of the Field"— The Rainbow — But Beauty of Nature cannot of itself teach Religion.

Chapter IV

False idea of God as mere Power — Old Testament teaches that Creation by Wisdom — Definition of Wisdom — Creation described in Book of Job — Wisdom of God in Creation infinitely beyond that of man, both in kind and in degree — Practical application to Human Life.

Chapter V. Reason The Light Of Divine Wisdom . . 56-62

Relation of Human Reason to Divine Wisdom indicated both in the Old and in the New Testament — Wisdom in the Proverbs intellectual as well as moral — Illustrated in Solomon — The Divine Wisdom includes, while it infinitely surpasses, all Human Knowledge and Science — St. John, in his teaching as to the Logos, confirms this.

Chapter VI

Charge that the Religious view of Creation has been adjusted to suit discoveries of modern Science — True as regards some

Analytical Table of Contents. vii

PAGE

post-Reformation Theology — But completely answered by the views held by Early Christian writers, ages before the birth of modern Science — St. Augustine — Prepai'ed for this work by his experience of Manichaeism — His first work on Genesis against the Manichreans treats the History as an Allegory — Yet contains the idea of Creation being analogous to the Evolution of a Plant out of a Seed, which he expounded in subsequent Works — His wise cautions against bringing our conclusions from Scripture into conflict with the conclusions of Science — Creation of the physical causes which in due order produced all Nature is the Creation of Natural things.

CHAPTER Vn.

TRUE IDEA OF CREATION 7 6-8 1

The Creator present always in His Works — Every Man born into the World as much the Creation of God as Adam — The Hundred and Fourth Psalm a complete Exposition of this tnith — Creation in several distinct senses — -Primary Creation — Secondary or derivative Creation — But period before the Creation of man to be distinguished from that which follows.

CHAPTER VHI.

Teaching of St. Paul as to Creation in Romans viii. — ktIciq illustrated from Revelation v. — "Vanity" from the Book of Ecclesiastes — Connection of the Argument in Romans viii. with that of the fifth Chapter, and with the History of the Fall — Because in the order of the Divine counsels, Redemption preceded Creation — Hooker and St. Augustine — Further illustrations from Scripture — The present state of Creation provisional.

viii Analytical Table of Contents.

PART ir,

SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF CREATION.

Chapter I. Page

SCIENCE INTERPRETS DIVINE WISDOM IN CREATION 99-IO5

St. Paul's argument as to the manifestation of God in His works implies that Science must aid Faith if it fulfils its true functions — It confirms the Witness to God in the unity, order, and causation of the Universe — ^ Mistaken attitude of Theologians towards Science — Result thai Science regarded as natural adversary of Faith — Sir W. Hamilton — "Unseen Universe" — True Relation between Faith and Science.

Chapter II

PRIMARY CREATION BEYOND SCIENCE . . I06-II4

Objection to Christian Faith in regard to Creation as " unthinkable " — Every theory of Creation equally so — Objection as to break of Continuity — Creation the Relation both of the finite to the Infinite, and of Reason to external World — Is the visible Universe a Physical or Spiritual production ?

Chapter III

LAW IN CREATION . . . . . . II5-I23

Both Science and Theology have Law as a fundamental Principle— Hooker on Law of Nature — Must be Law of Wisdom — Is it Unchangeable or Arbitrary ? — In the view of Science Unchangeable — Such Law necessary for rational Beings — True Meaning of Law — Distinction between Phenomenal and Dynamical Law.

A^ialytical Table of Contents. ix

Chapter IV. Page

IMMENSITY OF CREATION ..... I24-129

Number of Stars — Magnitudes and Distances of Heavenly Bodies — Mind obtains no Idea of these except by Comparison— Sirius — Distance and Mass — Apparently a " Giant Sun'' of "Giant Planets" — Do these Discoveries aid Faith or overwhelm it ?

Chapter V. Life In Other Worlds ..... 130-i42

General Belief fifty years ago — Discoveries of Astronomy counterbalanced by those of Geology in respect to other Worlds being abodes of rational Life — Whewell on "Plurality of Worlds " — His Statement of Argument from Geology — Man the climax of Creation — Question affected by Discoveries of " spectrum analysis," and by Laws of Transformation and Conservation of Energy — Proctor's view — Conclusion founded on Assumptions respecting which Science gives no Information — But does not affect Faith in regard of Creation.

Chapter VI

LAW OF EVOLUTION ...... I43-I59

The growth of a Plant from its Seed, by which Augustine illustrated Creation, the process in Nature from which the Law of Evolution derived — Principles of that Law, and Definition — The same Law fulfilled in the growth of a Chick in an Egg and in the birth of an Infant — In the System of the Universe — In the Earth's Structure — This Law, in its largest sense, the order through which Creation effected— The same order exhibited in the System of Animal Life — Confirmed by the teaching of Embryology.

X Analytical Table of Contents.

Chapter VII. Page

That Inorganic Nature was constituted through Physical Causes not supposed to be inconsistent with a Divine Creator — Nebular Theory — Sir William Thomson's Theory — General Scientific considerations suggested by Jevons — Prove that Will of the Creator cannot be excluded by Science, nor the causes explained through which the Evolution effected — Constitution of the Matter of which Universe composed — Atomic Theory — Molecules, differently arranged Systems of Elementary Atoms — Conjectural order of development of the Material of the Visible Universe — General conclusion as to development of the Inorganic Universe agrees with Law of Evolution.

Chapter VIII

Agassiz and Huxley on Characteristics of Life — Science, both Experimental and Theoretical, denies Spontaneous Generation— Definition of Evolution of each individual organism — Chief cause of Evolution unknown and mysterious — "Natural Selection " and " Survival of fittest " — Darwin, Mivart, and Lubbock — Two objections fatal to Natural Selection being the true cause of the Evolution of Organic Nature — General definition of that Evolution — Important inference from the Analogy of Embryology.

Chapter IX. Creation Of Man ...... 194-2oo

Creation of Man twofold — Perfection of Animal Nature ; and Living Soul — The latter immediate Creation — Science confirms this — Negative Evidences — Positive — Man' ritual Being belongs to Eternity.

Analytical Table of Contents. xi

Chapter X. Page

LAW OF DECAY 20I-2o8

Argument from Design strengthened by Science — But that Argument sometimes Illogical — Wisdom seeks best ends — Ideas of Modern Theology as to Creation — Corrected by Geology — Laplace's proof of Stability of Planetary System — Later discoveries of Science — "Degradation of Energy" proves that Law of Decay is Universal.

Conclusion 209-216

Introduction

INTRODUCTION.

THE purpose of this treatise cannot be better described tlian by referring to an eloquent and suggestive passage in the Inaugural Address, at the Church Congress held at Newcastle in 1881, by its President, the Bishop of Durham. In that year the British Association for the Advancement of Science had lately celebrated its jubilee in the metropolitical city of York, where, fi.ty years before, it had its birth.

" The President of that Association " (the Bishop observed) "availed himself of the occasion to sum up the achievements of the half-century past, —untrodden fields opened out, fresh sciences created, a whole world of fact and theory discovered, of which men had hardly a suspicion at the beginning of this period. In this commemoration we are reminded of the revolution in the intellectual world which has taken place in our time, as in the other " (the centenary of the birth of Stephenson) " our attention was directed to the revolution in the social and industrial world. Here again we are confronted with a giant force, of which the Church of Christ must give account. If we are wise, we shall endeavour to understand and absorb these truths. They are our proper heritage as Christians, for they are manifestations of the Eternal Word, who is also the Head of the Church. They will add breadth and strength and depth to our theology. Before all things we shall learn by the lessons of the past to keep ourselves free from any distrust or dismay. Astronomy once menaced, or was thought to menace, Christianity. Long before we were born, the menace had passed away. We found astronomy the sworn ally of religion. The heresy of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had become the orthodoxy of the nineteenth. When some years ago an eminent man of science, himself a firm believer, wrote a work throwing doubt on the plurality of worlds, it was received with a storm of adverse criticism, chiefly from Christian teachers, because he ventured to question a theory which three centuries earlier it would have been a shocking heresy to maintain.

Geology next entered the lists. We are old enough, many of us, to remember the anxiety and distrust with which its startling announcements were received. This scare, like the other, has passed away. We admire the providential design which through myriads of years prepared the earth by successive gradations of animal and vegetable life for its ultimate destination as the abode of man. Nowhere else do we find more vivid and striking illustrations of the increasing purpose which runs through the ages. Our theological conceptions have been corrected and enlarged by its teaching, but the work of the Church of Christ goes on as before. Geology, like astronomy, is fast becoming our faithful ally. And now, in turn. Biology concentrates the same interests, and excites the same distrusts. Will not history repeat itself? If the time should come when evolution is translated from the region of suggestive theory to the region of acknowledged fact, what then ? Will it not carry still further the idea of providential design and order ? Will it not reinforce with new and splendid illustrations the magnificent lesson of modern science — complexity of results traced back to simplicity of principles, variety of phenomena issuing from unity of order — -the gathering up, as it were, of the threads which connect the universe, in the right hand of the One Eternal Word ?" {Official Report of Church Congress, 1881, pp. 15, 16.)

Are these descriptions of the history of the past relations between Christianity and Science in all respects true ? Or even granting this, can we admit that the sanguine anticipations as to their future relations are equally trustworthy ? On both these grounds, the view here presented to us in the fervid language of the Bishop has been challenged. It is maintained by the adversaries of orthodox Christianity, who urge it as a proof that the religion itself is changing its form as mankind becomes enlightened ; even by some of its adherents it is admitted, but only as a sufficient reason for distrusting science itself, as the philosophy by which men are led astray from the simplicity of faith in Christ; that although it may be true that, as science has made its discoveries, theologians have contrived to adjust their belief to the new views that have been forced upon them much against their own will, and thus to satisfy themselves, though they have not satisfied the world in general ; at all events they have never effected such adjustment, without a serious loss to Christianity itself, at least as accepted by them ; the loss of a belief in Scripture as really inspired by God, and therefore perfectly and absolutely true according to that interpretation of it which an honest and impartial mind must accept. If it is a " nose of wax," to be twisted to one side and the other by a process of accommodation to suit new views of truth ; or to be explained away to mean the very opposite of that which it seems to mean ;

6 hiiroduciioii .

what will be the result of such a process, but that Christianity itself, with all its supernatural dogmas, will ultimately disappear ? And further as regards the future, it is confidently asserted that the new discoveries, especially in the direction of evolution, are to give, if they have not already given, the death-blow to the whole system of supernatural religion.

The present treatise, which discusses the momentous question how the Christian faith on the subject of Creation is affected by the progress of physical science, is written, it need hardly be said, from the Christian or theological standpoint, not the scientific. Nor does it profess to be a work on the evidences of Christianity. It is intended for those that believe, not for those that believe not. Its purpose is to quicken and strengthen the faith of those, who have found the spiritual truth which is revealed in Christ to be the Light and Life of their souls, by assisting them to recognise more distinctly what is the relation of revealed truth to such other truth as the enlightened reason of man can discover in nature. It is indeed obvious, to every one who is capable of reflecting at all on the question, that the truth that is indeed revealed from God, and that which the Divine gift of reason enables man to conclude from God's own works — so that the conclusions cannot be denied without denying reason itself — cannot possibly contradict one another, whatever they may seem to do. But as these two kinds of truth lie in different spheres of man's being, and address different faculties,- — the distinction between them being, at least, as wide as that between science and art (for example), or even that between material quantity a.nd moral quality, — it is easy to see that the language in which the one kind of truth is conveyed to the human mind, may be, or rather we should say, must be, very different from that which is necessary to express the other.

How differently, for example, would the very same scene in nature be described by the physicist and by the artist, — or, much more, by the poet; so that often there might be apparent contradiction where there is none in reality. We need not therefore be surprised if Holy Scripture, in which God reveals Himself to us in order that we may obtain that eternal life which consists in the knowledge of Him, and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, uses very different language on many subjects from that which would be employed if its purpose were to convey scientific knowledge. Even as a poet's description of some natural phenomenon, which might be perfectly true from the aspect in which he regarded it, might yet produce utterly incorrect impressions on the mind of one ignorant of science, as to the physical causes to which the effects He described were due ; so, and much more, when Holy Scripture represents Creation as the work of the Infinite God, and in its relation to man and his duty to God his Maker, we might expect with confidence — as experience has shown to have been the case in time past — that ideas would be produced as to the physical character of that work, which could only take the forms into which our previous knowledge enabled us to interpret the language. These would become necessarily modified as our knowledge of the physical universe advanced, and corrected the inaccurate and imperfect interpretations. And thus science may seem, as it progresses, to be opposed to revelation, and to contradict its teachings ; and it will for a season supply arguments to its adversaries, simply because it corrects those notions which were all our previous ignorance allowed us to form. Ultimately, however, when we discover that our interpretations of the language have all the while obscured the underlying truth, instead of being part of it, or at all essential to it, the discoveries of science are, in their permanent results, nothing but gain to real Christianity.

This general view of the question is one that readily presents itself to every thoughtful and impartial mind, which is, at the same time, profoundly convinced of the reality of that spiritual truth which Holy Scripture reveals, and also conscious that the reason of man, to which God Himself appeals in His word, is not given to mislead and deceive us when we study His works in nature. His own creation. All that is proposed in this treatise is to illustrate this general view in some of the more important aspects of the subject.

For the more distinct exposition of the argument, the work is divided into two parts, of which the first discusses at length the Christian Faith in regard to Creation, with the special view of exhibiting it, not merely as a dogma, but as a rational belief, consistent with all the perfections of God, and with the other doctrines of the Catholic religion. The second part touches on some of the scientific aspects of Creation. It would not be suitable to a theological work, nor would it be possible within the limits of this treatise, to enter in any detail into an examination of all the various scientific questions which bear more or less directly on the subject of Creation as apprehended in the Faith of the Church. It will be sufficient in that part to give some illustrations of that harmony between Science and Faith, which is the result of each observing the limits of the legitimate sphere which God has ordained for each,

PART I.

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH ON THE SUBJECT OF THE CREATION.

CONTENTS OF PART I.

Chap. I. Apostolic Definition

II. HISTORY OF THE CREATION NOT SCIENTIFIC. III. god's GLORY IN CREATION.

IV. CREATION THE WORK OF WISDOM.

V. REASON THE LIGHT OF DIVINE WISDOM.

VI. TEACHING OF ST. AUGUSTINE.

VII. TRUE IDEA OF CREATION.

VIII. CREATION SUBJECTED TO VANITY.

Chapter I. Apostolic Definition

IT is evident that for the investigation of the question which it is proposed to discuss, — viz., "Docs Science aid Faith in regard to Creation ? " — -or, to state it more fully, " How is the Christian Faith on the subject of Creation affected by the progress of Science ? " — the very first and most essential point to be determined is, " What is the Christian Faith on this subject ? " And this we must examine with much care, for it is more than possible that many of the difficulties have arisen from errors or defects in regard to this fundamental question. And by the Christian Faith is meant, that which is derived from Holy Scripture, and is taught and received as such in the Church of Christ.

The first article of this Faith, as set forth in what is called the Apostles' Creed, as containing those fundamental truths which were taught by the Apostles of Christ, is expressed in the words, "/ believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Eartli.'" The general truth, indeed, that Creation is the work of Almighty God, is one that belongs not less to what we understand by Natural Religion than to that which is derived from Revelation. This we must conclude from the teaching of the Apostles themselves. Thus St. Paul and Barnabas, when protesting against the idolatrous worship offered to them by the heathens at Lystra, appealed to their own consciousness that worship was due only to " the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that in them is ; " and " Who left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness." * St. Paul, again, when addressing the Athenians, assumed t as a truth self-evident to their own consciences, that there is a God " that made the world," — tov Koa/xov, which included not the earth only, but the whole universe and the heavenly bodies, — " and all things therein;" and Who, as Creator, is "Lord of heaven and earth," and " giveth to all life and breath and all things;" in whom " we live and move and have our being," as even their own poets testified when they said, " For we are also His offspring." And this is the more remarkable when we consider that among his hearers were " Epicurean philosophers," whose philosophy was, or at least was accounted to be, opposed to the religious view of Creation. And yet the apostle took for granted that the religious consciousness of all on this subject was so strong, that he might appeal to it without hesitation as contradicting all such atheistical speculations. Indeed, in his epistle to the Romans,^ when describing in the first chapter the condition of the heathen world without Revelation, he declares that their sin consisted in " holding down the truth in unrighteousness ; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them ; for God manifested it unto them." And he explains how, in their inner consciousness, God made certain truths as to Himself manifest to them. "For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity : so that they are without excuse." * Acts xiv. 15-17. t Acts xvii. 24-29. % Rom. i. 18-21.

Apostolic Definition. 13

And he proceeds to show what would have been the moral effects of this belief in Almighty God as the Creator, had not their knowledge of this truth been suppressed and overlaid and almost lost through their own love of evil. So that it is evident that belief in God, as the Maker of heaven and earth, is the first and most fundamental principle in all religion ; and so necessary to man, that, before that Revelation was given by which man should obtain the full knowledge of God, which is life eternal, this truth was clearly manifested, to all whose hearts were willing to recognise it, in the works of God themselves.

But the Christian Faith as to Creation, as taught in Holy Scripture, and particularly by the apostles of Christ, although its elementary truth was made known to man independently of Revelation, is not only more defined and more developed, so as to enter much more largely and with more moral and spiritual force into the religious life ; but is also related to other fundamental verities of that Gospel which is the power of God to man's salvation. And although, in the Old Testament, enough was revealed on this subject of Creation to suffice for that imperfect and preparatory Revelation of God ; it is undoubtedly to the New Testament that we must look for the exact definition and the complete exposition of the Faith which the Church of Christ receives and teaches.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, which, whether it was written by St. Paul himself or by some other apostolic teacher, is accepted by the Church as one of those scriptures from which the Christian Faith is derived, there is given a series of illustrative instances, taken from the Old Testament, of that faith by which God's servants in all ages have been distinguished, and which connects the saints of the Old Testament, ever since the creation, with us who believe in Christ under the gospel. And this series i'^ prefaced by a definition* of the faith on the subject of Creation, so far as that faith is common to us and to the patriarchs. We must therefore regard it as the apostolic interpretation of that Revelation which was given to the fathers, as to this primary truth of all religion, that God is Maker of heaven and earth. Indeed, from the fact of the instances t of Abel and Enoch and Noah, which are recorded in the fourth, and fifth, and subsequent chapters of Genesis, following this reference to Creation, there can be no doubt whatever that the writer had in his mind, when describing the faith on this subject that was common to all the true servants of God, that sacred history of Creation with which the First Book of the Old Law commences. And it is of the utmost importance, therefore, that we should compare this statement of the faith as to Creation — which is derived from that part of the Old Testament, and expounded by apostolic authority— -with the history itself to which it refers. For the one will undoubtedly explain the- other. In Genesis we find that the account of Creation is prefaced by the words, " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The first act in the process of bringing order and being out of the primary state of formless, indefinite darkness and emptiness, was the command of God, " Let there be light : and there was light." The light and the darkness are separated ; and the light, unlike the perpetual glory of God's presence, is intermitting ; and from the dawning of the light to the return of the darkness is one Day of God's Creation. Again God uttered His Word, and a second separation, that of the waters below from those above, was made by the firmament of heaven : and this was the second Day of Creation. A third time that Word is uttered, and the dry land and the sea are separated ; and as that Divine * Heb. xi. 3. t Heb. xi. 4-7.

Apostolic Definition. 15

Word commanded the earth to bring forth the various forms of vegetable life capable of propagating themselves by seed, so it was. And this was the third Day of God's creating work. On the fourth, the same Word of God called into existence lights in the firmament to divide between the day and the night ; from which it is evident that the Days of God's Creation — whatever they may mean — are altogether different from these days that mark the time for man. On the fifth Day the Word of God calls forth from the waters all living creatures that are in the seas, and the fowl that fly above the earth in the firmament of heaven. And, lastly, on the sixth Day, the same Word commands the earth to bring forth all the beasts of the earth after their kind, and cattle after their kind, and creeping things after their kind. But here, as the great work approaches its consummation, and the crowning result of Creation is to appear in one who is to be related to God as no other created existence can be, there is a corresponding change in the operation of the Divine Word. It is no longer, as before, God said, " Let man be brought forth, and man was created ; " but, " God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over " the rest of created beings on the earth. " So God created man in His mvn image."

Such is the history of Creation, of which the apostle gives the summary in these few but very comprehensive words : Ilto-Tet voov[j.€v Kar-qpTicrOaL tows alwva^ f^fxari @€ov, ets TO //.r) eK <jiaivofj.€V(i)v to ^Xeiro/xevov yeyoi/eVat; or, as the words may be literally rendered, " By faith ive knoiu that the ages zvere completely furnislied by the Word of God, so that not from things that appear has that which is seen been made." The word " know " is certainly preferable to " understand," which implies a different kind of knowledge from that by which we apprehend the unseen and unthinkable objects of faith.

And it must be observed that here the knowledge is not that which man without Revelation (as St. Paul teaches) can obtain through the works of God, but that which is communicated to us by believing the testimony of God Himself in Holy Scripture. And the knowledge thus acquired has several additional elements beyond that which could be obtained from Nature. First, the work of Creation is described in the terms KaTrjpTccrOaL tov<; aiwvas. There is no English word that exactly conveys the force of the verb here.* It expresses elsewhere in the New Testament, as well as in classical writers, the act of " bringing into order," "completing an arrangement," "furnishing thoroughly ;" and means evidently, when it is compared with the account in Genesis, the work of ordering, or calling existences into their due form and condition — such as is there described as the result of the utterances of God's Word on the successive Days of Creation. Again, it is impossible, when we follow out this comparison, not to understand the atwi/as of the writer in the Hebrews as corresponding to the Days of Creation in Genesis. There are, in that chapter, no " ivorlds " besides the earth which are described as being " furnished f even if the word could ever mean, as koV/xo? does, the world in its relation to space, which is more than doubtful. The original idea of alwv is, " time as the condition under which all created things exist, and the measure of their existence." " Thus signifying time, it comes presently to signify all which exists in the world under conditions of time."t So that the aiwras of the apostle in this