Evolution: An Investigation and a CritiqueGraebner, Theodore
Religion
Evolution: An Investigation and a Critique
Graebner, Theodore
Evolution; Religion and science
Dr. Berndt, of Berlin, recently said in the _"Naturwissenschaftliche
Rundschau der Chemikerseitung"_ (April, 1914): "Max Weber, one of the
best authorities on mammals, regards the anthropoid apes of to-day as a
branch _parallel_ to the human branch. Scholars like Cope, Adloeff,
Klaatsch, prefer to push the origin of man back to the earliest age of
terrestrial life, whence he went his way _from the very outset_ separate
from the apes." This is a highly significant utterance. It means nothing
more than this: there is not one recognizable link which unites man with
the animal kingdom. All the intermediate forms between man and the
original jelly-fish, which according to Haeckel and Vogt was his
ancestor, have disappeared. For their existence we have nothing but the
word of speculative scientists.
Concerning the Neanderthaler, the Cro-Magnon man. etc., Dr. Dawson has
said: "Geological evidence resolves itself into a calculation of the
rate of erosion of river valleys, of deposition of gravel and
cave-earths, and of formation of stalagmite crusts, all of which are so
variable and uncertain that, though it may be said that an impression
of great antiquity beyond the time of received history has been left on
the minds of geologists, no absolute antiquity has been proved; and
while some, on such evidence, would stretch the antiquity of man to
even half a million years, the oldest of these remains may, after all,
not exceed our traditional six thousand. These skeletons tell us that
primitive man had the same high cerebral organization which he
possesses now, and we may infer the same high intellectual and moral
nature, fitting him for communication with God and headship over the
lower world." Similarly Figuier held that "we know of no archaeological
find (stone hatchets, etc.) that could not be pronounced only five
thousand years old as well as fifty thousand."
Lionel S. Beale, the famous microscopist, testifies: "In support of all
naturalistic conjectures concerning man's origin, there is not at this
time the shadow of scientific evidence."
William Hanna Thomson, M.D., LL.D., Physician to the Roosevelt Hospital;
Consulting Physician to New York State Manhattan Hospital for the
Insane, who has held a professorship in New York University Medical
College; been president of the New York Academy of Medicine, etc, in
his recent book. _"What is Physical Life?"_ says concerning the doctrine
of evolution: "No contradiction could be greater than that between this
doctrine and the greatest truth which underlies this human world."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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