CREATION BY EVOLUTION
natural creation. But such a belief cannot be held by enlightened persons who have really studied and appreciated the evidences of man's evolution. Such persons know well that every human being bears in his body the marks of his animal origin, and that the human embryo shows that man's ancestors were once water-breathers and later hairy quadrupeds before they became men; yet this knowledge need not destroy belief in the dignity of man nor in the existence of God.
It is a curious fact that many persons who are seriously disturbed by scientific teachings as to the evolution or gradual development of the human race accept with equanimity the universal observations as to the development of the human individual. The animal ancestry of the race should be no more disturbing to philosophical and religious beliefs than the germinal origin of the individual, yet the latter is a fact of universal observation, which cannot be relegated to the domain of theory and which cannot be successfully denied. If we admit the fact of the development of the entire individual from the egg, surely it matters little to our religious beliefs to admit the development or evolution of the race from some animal ancestor; for who will maintain that a germ cell is more complex, more perfect, or more intelligent than man's nearest relative in the animal world?
If the idea of the evolution of a species is atheistic, as some persons assert, so is the idea of the development of an individual, for individual development involves the same principles as race evolution. If one concedes the fact of individual development according to natural laws and without supernatural suspension of those laws, one might as well concede the fact of evolution without supernatural creation, so far at least as its effect on theology is concerned. It is surprising that the so-called “Fundamentalists” have not denied the development of the individual as they deny
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