The True and False Theory of Evolution

Front matter

The True and False Theory of Evolution

by Rev. Chauncey Giles

Table of Contents

Introduction

Introduction

The interest which Evolution has awakened in the minds of the most acute and profound thinkers in the scientific and religious world, shows its intimate connection with the growing tendency to regard all things as connected, and related, and moving on in the paths of an immutable order. It is the effect of this intelligent, scientific spirit brooding over the chaotic theories of creation, causing a deeper penetration into its mysteries, and a more determined effort to solve the enigmas of the universe. That great good must result from this more extensive and accurate knowledge of the material world, and its relations to man and all the forms of life which exist in it, is evident to every one who is acquainted with the history of human progress in the knowledge of nature and man.

But the first effect of this awakened interest in, the laws and processes of creation seems to be injurious to religion and the belief in the existence of a supreme, intelligent, and personal Creator who controls and guides all things to effect the purposes of His love, according to the methods of His wisdom. The scientist gets so near to nature, and becomes so absorbed in watching the complex but orderly processes by which all things are created and sustained, that he has no thought of anything above and beyond what is cognizable by his senses. The causes he discovers are so powerful and specific in their application that they seem to him to be adequate to the effects. He sees law, order, the immutable relation of cause and effect existing in everything around him. He finds abundant evidence of the slow but gradual changes which have been constantly going on in the material world; he can trace the natural connection between one thing and another, and he concludes that he has discovered all the substances that exist, and all the forces that operate in the creation.

He sees that every step in the ascent from lower to higher forms, in the production of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and in the development of human intelligence, has been taken by means of a preceding one. Why should he admit that this universe was created in a moment of time by a spoken word? He sees a chain of living creatures, with but few missing links, running through the creation from the lowest to the highest forms of life; he has abundant testimony that the lowest was first created, and he naturally concludes that each link in the chain was formed from it. The scientist has all the appearances of nature in his favor All his senses testify to the truth of his theory. He can count the factors; he can see the process of creation. Why should he admit the existence of an unknown factor? Reasoning from these premises, he sees no need of interference with natural laws to produce any of the results which are manifest to human intelligence. Consequently, he rejects the idea of a special creation, and, consequently, of an intelligent personal Creator. That is one reason why he seeks to disprove the doctrine of distinct species, and to show that plants, animals, and men are all evolved from one substance by forces inherent in that substance. But he does not escape from the necessity of a Creator in this way. An intelligent Creator is as essential to the product of a given effect which is reached through a long chain of causes and effects as by one act. The more numerous .and complicated the factors, the louder the demand for a guiding and controlling intelligence. Every round in the ladder of ascent, from the primordial cell to man, is a distinct step, a special creation, and demands a Creator. A complicated machine that works with precision, and every movement of which conduces to the ultimate effect, is a far more conclusive proof of an intelligent inventor than the simple implement of the savage. Every wheel and spring was a special formation, though shaped in all its particulars with direct reference to the use it is to perform, and the co-operation it is to give, to every other part of the machine. We grant that the universal presence of law and order, of cause and effect, and the gradual creation and perfection of all forms of life, are conclusive evidence that the universe of material objects and living beings was not created in a moment by an Almighty fiat. But these facts do not abolish the necessity for an omnipotent and infinite Creator who provides the instrumentalities and constantly uses them. They are His ways of accomplishing His purposes. And when those purposes are correctly understood, it will be seen that they immeasurably increase the demand for one.

It seems to be taken for granted by many Christian scientists that we must adhere to the commonly-received doctrine that the material universe was created out of nothing by a spoken word, by the fiat of omnipotent power, or give up the idea that it is the product of an intelligent, personal, Divine Being. This is the reason why the doctrines of Evolution are regarded with so much suspicion, and are so strenuously opposed by theologians. They cannot surrender the idea of a personal and omnipotent Creator. This would banish the Lord from the universe and practically deny His existence. They acknowledge that the scientist reasons logically from his premises; but they deny the premises. This is a fatal mistake. They would be in a much better position to discover the truth, if they accepted his premises and his facts, but denied his conclusions. The scientist arms himself with a vast number of familiar and indisputable facts. He traces the progress of creation from step to step; he shows the agency of natural causes in the products of life and the development of living beings. He sees no need of an intelligent Creator, and, therefore; he rules Him out of the universe and denies His existence. His fatal mistake consists in taking a part of the premises for the whole. He draws his conclusions from the appearances disclosed to the senses whose testimony is known to be unsafe and illusory in the most common things.

The Christian can accept all the facts of the scientist. He could do it if there were no " missing links" in the chain of natural causes and effects from the lowest plane of creation to the highest, and find increasing confirmation at every step of the presence of a Divine power and the guiding hand of a Divine wisdom. There is no ground for conflict between a true science and a true theology. They are the essential parts of a true knowledge of God and His works. They are a light to each other, which is essential to a correct understanding of both. Science without God is but half of the truth. It is a body without a soul; and God, without a true knowledge of the functions of nature and of human life is but a formless, substanceless abstraction. Science needs theology to lift it above the low level and the narrow limits of the material world, the theatre of natural causes and effects. Theology needs the aid of science to bring it down from the abstract and formless to, the concrete, and give it body, form, substance, conceivable qualities and relations. Science ought to be the handmaid of theology, and it is due to the misconceptions or ignorance of both scientist and theologian that she is not. The facts of Evolution which science has discovered and brought to general notice, when correctly understood and divested of the false conclusions to which its ardent votaries have blindly rushed, will establish upon the basis of immutable law the principles which a superficial and partial knowledge assumes to have disproved. They will bring the Lord near to man as a personal and constant factor in the creation, instead of banishing Him from it. They will teach man how to see the Lord's love and wisdom and constant care for His children in all the works of His hands.

Evolution has forced Christianity into a false position, or taken advantage of a false position already assumed, and with the adroitness of a special advocate, or the unconsciousness of the full force of its testimony, it has gained acceptance for witnesses which do not testify in its favor. This is a fact which should be clearly understood. For the want of it many misconceptions about the theory have gained credence. Many honest minds have been led to believe that it was established beyond doubt, and even its most ardent advocates seem to have been deceived by it. The essential principle of Evolution, which distinguishes it from all other theories, is that matter has no origin, and that it contains within itself all the substances and forces, and all the organic forms and qualities of plants, animals, and men. Growth, development, and progress of all kinds are cited as examples of Evolution, and proof of its essential principle. It evolves the spiritual and supernatural from dreams and natural phenomena of whose causes men in their undeveloped state were ignorant. The idea of God and the obligation to worship and obey Him are evolved from reverence and regard for ancestors who had been removed by death. All that the evolutionist needs to create a religion, a spiritual world, and a Supreme Being, is some hint or fancy of an ignorant savage. We have lectures on the evolution of the steam-engine, of the various sciences and of Revelation in the Sacred Scriptures. Indeed, evolution is driving the old words, progress, improvement, development, out of use and usurping their places. If it simply took their place and meaning, there would be no serious objection to the change. But it carries with it a principle or an assumption which does not belong to the common words, and then cites them as witnesses in favor of a doctrine which they never taught. There is a fallacy in this method of proof which has deceived many Christians, and probably many of ,the scientists themselves. Progress in knowledge upon any subject, natural or spiritual, is not the evolution of some indistinct hint or vague fancy about it. It is made by gaining new ideas; by the light of new truths which did not originate in the imperfect notions of ignorance. It is as impossible to evolve knowledge from ignorance as it is to gain light from darkness. Knowledge upon any subject is enlarged and perfected by more knowledge. The supposition that ignorance or error can by any process of increase or development or evolution, become truth, is as absurd as the doctrine of the creation of the universe out of nothing. Improvement in the arts and industries and methods of business and mechanical appliances is not the evolution of any principle or force that was inherent in them. It has been made by the application of truths and forces which were not in them. The promise and potency of the steam-engine do not exist in iron, or of a palace in clay and marble. A vast number of the facts which are cited in proof of evolution are of this nature. They are not germane to the subject, and should be ruled out of court.

If we admit the premises that every step in the progress of creation is taken by causes which inhere in matter, and that the highest is evolved from the lowest, as power from inertia, life from death, there is no escape from the testimony of the facts. But we are not compelled to admit the premises or deny the facts. We admit, without hesitation or exception, that creation is a gradual process, in which natural means co-operate with other forces; that every step in it is connected and related as cause and effect; and still we emphatically deny the fundamental principle a Evolution. Gradual advancement by natural instrumentalities is not limited to any special theory of the first cause and origin of creation. It is valid against the doctrine of instantaneous creation by omnipotent fiat; but it applies with equal, if not more, convincing power to the idea of an intelligent, personal and Divine Author, who acts from the ends of infinite love, and creates and employs an infinite variety of means to accomplish His purposes. Those who believe in the Divine origin of the creation may frankly admit all the facts of the advocates of Evolution. They may even gratefully accept them as a most important service to religion, and beautiful illustrations of the methods of infinite wisdom, while they utterly repudiate the essential theory they are summoned to prove. The theory leaves out of account the most important factor, the constant presence and persistent action of the spiritual and Divine substances and forces from which matter itself and all its forces are evolved, and by which it is constantly moved to action and molded into form. Still we believe that the scientist has rendered an invaluable service to an intelligent and undoubting belief in the existence of a supreme, personal Being, by demonstrating the manifold, infinitely complex and orderly means by which He manifests His love and wisdom and attains His ends. The scientist himself is a most important agent in this work, and he is rendering a service to humanity of which he is wholly unconscious.

There is another principle which has led to man misconceptions and errors concerning the constant agency of the Lord in the creation; and that is, the nature and, functions of law. Law is regarded as a force in itself; as having some independent and self-derived power of creating and destroying. Men talk of the laws of nature as though they were independent powers which controlled and guided all the movements of material substances. Even those who believe in the existence of an intelligent and personal Creator, practically admit that He has committed the universe of matter and mind to the government of certain laws, while He stands, as it were, aloof, like an inventor from his machine, and only interferes to prevent its destruction when it becomes deranged, or to destroy it when it ceases to perform the use for which he made it. Law is endowed with intelligence and power; and, in the minds of those who regard everything from a material point of view, and measure everything by the appearances of the senses, it is put in the place of the Creator. The Lord is banished from the universe, and law is elevated to His throne.

But the truth is that law possesses no power, and consequently does no work. Law is simply the way in which an intelligent power acts. Civil law has no power of its own inherent in it. It is a direction of the manner in which the members of a community or nation must act. It points out their relations to one another, and makes known the penalties of violating them. It possesses no more power in itself than a machine or an iron railway. All its power lies in the minds of intelligent beings who enacted it. In the same manner the laws of matter and spirit are the ways in which the Creator works to accomplish His purposes. They are the paths in which He moves; the methods of His infinite wisdom, by which He attains the ends of His infinite love. Instead of banishing Him from the universe, therefore, they are the paths in which He enters it, and they are the evidence of His constant presence and active energy in creating and sustaining His works. Instead of removing Him to some immeasurable distance from men and nature, where He sits in solitary grandeur, contemplating an accomplished purpose, they are testimony presented even to the senses, that He is actively present in the least as well as in the greatest things, creating, sustaining, and perfecting His work. He is revealing to men His love and wisdom in the order, harmony, and infinite variety of His methods; in the beauty and grandeur of the universe, and the boundless wealth of His provision for human happiness. He is brought near to us. We see Him acting in every movement; we see Him working in every flower that blossoms, and in every human effort to enlighten and improve the condition of humanity.

There are many fatal defects in the common doctrine of Evolution as a theory of creation. It sets out from a false position which enters into all its reasoning, and necessarily results in false conclusions. It makes that first which is last; mistakes effects for causes, and appearances for substantial truths. It deduces the greater from the less, the higher from the lower, power from inertia, organization from crude matter, reason from instinct, and instinct from attraction. It makes disorder the cause of order, and death the origin of life. If, compelled by the absurdity of their position and the violation of all logical and philosophical modes of reasoning, its apostles reluctantly admit the possibility of the existence of some power behind matter and distinct from it, they do not allow that this unknown Somewhat has any part in the work of creation. Consequently, so far as it relates to the theory, it is the same as though it did not exist.

By this practical denial of an intelligent Creator, the essential factor in the creation is rejected, and the attempt is made to account for the existence of all things and beings without any purpose or adequate cause. This attempt to account for the creation without a Creator, is as irrational and absurd as it would be to account for a machine while denying the existence of a mechanic, or a house, by describing how one brick was placed upon another and beam was fitted to beam, without a builder; or for all the works of human intelligence and power, without the agency of an intelligent human being.

Everything is regarded from the circumference, and judged by its appearance to the senses. The centre is formed from the circumference, which is contrary to all the laws of order in the creation. The principle is as absurd as it would be to deduce the sun from the planets, heat, from cold, and light from darkness. There are many plausible and attractive features in this theory of creation. But to accept it we must ignore facts and principles which have been recognized by a common perception in all ages and among all nations; we must reverse the order of logical thinking, and banish from the universe all intelligible purpose, all love and wisdom in its creation. This would make it truly blank and desolate.

The doctrines of the New Church give us a theory of evolution which is free from any of these defects. It begins at the highest and describes every step of descent to the lowest. It takes its position in the centre; in the first untreated and infinite Cause which is adequate to every possible effect, and traces the evolution of every plane and link in the creation, shows the relation of the whole to every part, and of the least part to the whole. While it shows the ineradicable and infinite difference between the Creator and His works, it points out with equal clearness His intimate and constant connection with them. It contains the new doctrine of discrete degrees or planes of substance and forces by which the creation descends by distinct steps from its origin in God to its lowest forms; but shows that there are no breaks, no missing links, no impassable gulfs which separate one degree of the creation from another. Everything is created with a definite purpose and has a distinct meaning. It avoids the absurdity of an instantaneous creation by a dictate of omnipotent power, and demonstrates in the most logical manner, that the universe of matter and mind, and everything and being organized for the reception of life, is evolved from the Creator by vast and complicated processes, extending through many ages; and that this evolution has been effected, according to the laws of an immutable order, by a wisdom which sees the end from the beginning and in the beginning, and the relation of every force and substance and act and infinitesimal part to the whole.

The following lectures were written for the purpose of stating some of the fundamental points in this theory, and giving some illustrations of its truth by facts and forces which lie within the limits of common observation. They were written from week to week amid the pressure of many duties, and sent to the printer immediately after delivery. No one can be more sensible of their imperfections than the author. The themes are too great and involve too-many profound problems, to be fully set forth in a few discourses. The most that the author has been able to do is to give some hints of a theory which he believes meets every demand of science, of reason, and every devout believer in the existence of a Divine, personal Being, who is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. It does not reject any natural fact, or deny the relations of cause and effect on the natural plane of creation. On the contrary, it accepts them all, throws new light upon them, and uses their testimony to confirm its own principles. It does more than this. It supplies the missing links which science has not been able to discover, between the distinct planes of creation; and, what is of infinitely greater value to science and theology, it discloses the intimate and inseparable connection between the Creator and the universe. If these discourses should be instrumental in leading any number of those who have become interested in the profound problems of the creation, which Evolution has brought into conspicuous notice, to learn more of the principles briefly and imperfectly stated in them, the author will have accomplished all he could reasonably expect. He only desires to complete the service by referring them to a small work by Swedenborg, called Divine Love And Wisdom, in which he will find the origin of the universe, and the processes and order by which it is evolved from the Creator, set forth in a clear, logical, and masterly manner.

Lecture I

Lecture I

The True And The False Theory Of Evolution.

Evolution has become a subject of wide and profound interest to intelligent minds in the scientific and religious world. It has already exerted a powerful influence in modifying long-established opinions and theories concerning the origin of nature and man, and the methods of creating them; and this influence is destined to increase in extent and power. It is one of those questions that have come to stay. It is a new step in man's knowledge of the order and processes of creation; it is the discovery of a universal law like that of gravitation by Newton, or that which regulates the motions of the heavenly bodies by Copernicus, and it is destined to work much greater changes in common opinions about creation than those who advocate or oppose the doctrine now imagine.

Like all questions which relate to causes and universal methods of operation, it can be regarded from various points of view, which will lead to various and even opposite conclusions. A partial view will lead to false and fatal results. It will be ignorantly and honestly opposed, and ignorantly and honestly advocated. It has been, and it will continue to be, employed to destroy and to defend religion; to prove a cold and dead materialism, and to illustrate and enforce the idea of an ever-present, intelligent, and personal Creator.

The universal and fundamental idea of evolution is that one thing or one creature is evolved from another and becomes what it is by the sum of all the influences which have co-operated in its creation. This doctrine is true beyond a doubt, and must be accepted by every intelligent mind. But when we come to determine what those causes are, there is room for the widest differences of opinion - differences that lead to the most opposite conclusions. From a natural point of view only natural causes are allowed to testify; all others are ruled out as merely fanciful and unworthy of our credence. According to this doctrine, creation is effected by the contact of one form of matter with another in the blind surgings of material forces. Circumstance, under the new name of environment, is elevated to the throne of the creation, and all things and all creatures become what they are by natural selection. In this rage and war of the elements, all progress is effected by the survival of the fittest, and by the law of heredity, according to which every thing and every creature tends to reproduce itself and perpetuate its own form and nature. This doctrine excludes a personal Divine Being and all intelligent Divine agency from the creation, Matter is sufficient unto itself. Professor Tyndall has stated this view of the subject in these memorable words. "I discern," he says, "in that matter, which we in our ignorance, and notwithstanding our profound reverence for its creation, have hitherto covered with opprobrium, the promise and the potency of every form and quality of life."

This is the specific and central theory of evolution from a material point of view. According to it organic forms are evolved from inorganic. Power is 'evolved from inertia, mind from matter, life from death, by some underived and inherent quality in the earth. All progress in knowledge and improvement in the excellence of material things are cited as instances of evolution. Facts with which every one is familiar are summoned to testify to a theory to which they have no relation. The development of the steam-engine, the improvements in the forms and qualities of plants and animals, the advancement of society in its various forms, are claimed as examples of this theory of evolution. Every one acknowledges the facts, but does not discover the fallacy of attributing them to evolution. They are not examples of the theory. In all cases the improvement is effected by forces which do not belong to matter. They are due to, mental or spiritual forces acting upon matter, and placing it in conditions more favorable for improvement by natural forces, or molding it into the forms of ideas. Every mechanical invention, every improvement in social and civil conditions, was first an idea; was evolved from mind, and embodied in matter by an intelligent power.

The absurdity of the theory that the higher is evolved from the lower is recognized by many scientists, and they acknowledge that there may be some power behind and separate from matter which operates upon it. But what that power is and how it is related to matter they do not know. We may give it what name we please. We may call it God, or a force stored up in matter or constantly acting upon it. They are Agnostics, and they will neither deny or affirm. They hold the question of the existence of an intelligent personal Creator immanent in the creation in abeyance, and wait for further light. This is a step from blank materialism, compelled by the absurdity that creation creates itself. It is a hopeful sign. But it is still a practical denial of the immediate and constant agency of an intelligent personal Creator as the constant and the most important factor in the creation. Material forces, environment, natural selection, heredity, are regarded as forces in themselves in some way independent of a personal Creator if there is one. It is as though we should acknowledge that a watch could not make itself; that there must be some power outside of it which had a hand in the work, that might have given some assistance in its creation; but still should attribute some independent agency to the metal and the tools which were used in performing the work.

Natural causes are regarded in some way as independent causes, and not merely as instrumental in the same sense that the hammer and saw and pen are instruments, having no power in themselves of accomplishing human purposes.

The third class of those who accept the doctrine of evolution regard it from the spiritual as well as the natural side. They accept the material factors as fully as the materialist. They acknowledge the instrumentality of material substances and natural forces; they recognize the influence of environment, natural selection, heredity, and all the natural influences which have been combined in the production of plant, animal, or man; but they regard them as provisions and methods of the Lord in effecting His purposes. He creates all the substances, forces, and methods which the scientist discovers in the creation, and uses them in the same way that the mechanic puts material substances through many processes and employs others fashioned in various forms, to build a house, make a garment, or construct an engine.

This is the general opinion of the Christian world. But theologians have stopped with the bare assertion of the fact of creation. It has been generally taught and accepted as true, that the universe was created but of nothing by a spoken word, by an Almighty fiat. "He spake and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast." The common idea has been, and is still maintained with great persistence that creation was instantaneous, without methods, order, processes, and the chain of causes and effects; that power was in some way stored up in matter, in plants, animals, and men, and a kind of independent existence given to them. It is regarded as in some way derogatory to the Divine wisdom that creation should be a gradual work, and advance by distinct and orderly steps. Evolution seems to many Christians as well as scientists to take the work out of the Lord's hands and commit it to general laws, which have some power in themselves to create and sustain. Men talk about the laws of gravitation, of chemical affinity, of natural selection, and of heredity as though they were independent forces. This may be the appearance, but it is not the genuine truth. A law of nature is simply a universal method of the Lord's operation in nature; it is the way in which the forces constantly emanating from Him operate to produce their effects. Whether these forces originate in nature and are of and from her, or have their constant source in a Divine Being by whom they are exerted, does not touch the fact that they are simply the ways in which causes produce their effects. Theologians and scientists both fall into the same error when they regard law as an efficient cause. The idea that creation is an instantaneous work; that the material universe was created out of nothing by the exercise of omnipotent power, has been a fruitful source of errors and absurdities, and has had a powerful influence in driving observing and intelligent men to the opposite absurdity that matter is eternal, and "contains within itself the promise and the potency of every form and quality of life." The phrase "out of nothing" is equally absurd, and opposed to all experience and to the essential nature of things. The opposite maxim, "out of nothing, nothing comes," is one of those self-evident propositions which command universal assent. The New Church gives us a doctrine of the creation which is not open to any of the objections which have been urged against the opinions and theories of the materialist or theologian, which accepts all the facts discovered by scientists, and still declares in the most positive manner that all creation is a gradual work, due to a personal, intelligent, and constantly acting Divine Being, who is the source of all power, life, and existence. This doctrine is in accordance with all observation and experience as far as they go; it is in accordance with enlightened reason, and with the spirit and teachings of the two revelations the Lord has made to men, the revelation of His Word and of His works. To a brief statement of this doctrine I invite your attention.