CREATION BY EVOLUTION
ble with belief in God. One must choose, it was said, between one and the other. Much modern thought no longer regards this supposed alternative as logically sound. Some of us find no inconsistency in believing in both. Nay, more; many thinkers to-day are convinced that only in the light shed by the concept of evolution does the full richness of Divine Purpose, as thus manifested, appeal to some at least of those in whom a spiritual attitude toward God has itself been evolved.
Consider the matter a little more closely. Herbert Spencer, in 1858, contrasted “creation by evolution” with “creation by manufacture”; and even then he expressed the opinion that creation by manufacture is a much lower concept than creation by evolution. It may be said, however, that neither evolution nor manufacture express what we mean by creation. Creation, or as it used to be called, “special creation,” means, it will be said, sudden bringing into being by unconditional fiat. As a typical example of creative fiat take, “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.” Extend this: Let there be things; let there be plants and animals after their kinds; let there be man. Such was an early expression of creative fiat. It was poetical in the fine sense that
Unto His measures moveth the whole.
Noteworthy is that wonderful touch of spiritual insight, fitly given first place in the Hebrew Scriptures: Many instances of creative fiat, but One God whose Purpose is thus manifested.
Turn now to modern thought. It is still open to us to couch ultimate explanation in like terms: Let there be electrons; let there be atoms; let there be molecules; let
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