Creation or Evolution? A Philosophical InquiryCurtis, George Ticknor
Religion
Creation or Evolution? A Philosophical Inquiry
Curtis, George Ticknor
Creation; Evolution
There are several other alleged homologues or rudiments which are
supposed to connect man with the lower animals, but which, whatever may
be the resemblances, it is not necessary to discuss in detail, because
there is one consideration at least which applies to the whole of
this class of proofs, and to that I now pass. The three great classes
of facts on which the whole argument rests, viewing man as an animal
and omitting all reference to his intellect, are the resemblances of
his bodily structure to that of the other mammals, the similarity
between his embryonic development and theirs, and the rudiments. I
reserve for separate discussion the counter-proof which may be derived
from the nature of the human mind, and the special adaptation of the
human structure to become the temporary residence and instrument of a
spiritual and immortal being.
"It is," says Mr. Darwin, "no scientific explanation to assert that
they have all [man and the other animals of the mammalian class] been
formed on the same ideal plan."[51] The similarity of pattern is
pronounced "utterly inexplicable" upon any other hypothesis than that
all these animals are descended from a common progenitor, and that
they have become what they are by subsequent adaptation to diversified
conditions. I may incur some risk in undertaking to suggest what is
a "scientific" explanation. Certainly I do not propose to "assert"
anything. But I will endeavor to keep within the bounds of what I
suppose to be science. I take that to be a scientific explanation
which, embracing the important facts of natural history as the
groundwork of the reasoning, undertakes to show the rationality of one
hypothesis that differs from another, when the question is, Which has
the greater amount of probability in its favor?
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