Now let us examine the second narrative, as given in the second and third chapters of Genesis. Here we have a direct contradiction of the story in the first chapter; for we are told that god created the earth, the heavens, vegetation and man, but not woman, all in one day. We are also told that there had been no rain upon the earth, and yet that “there went up a mist from the earth,” which we know is impossible. “But,” say the orthodox, “everything is possible with god.” The reply of the evolutionist is, “Can god, then, make a stick with one end only?” God next planted a garden, in which he placed his newly made man, after giving him instructions to eat of every tree within it, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit of which was not to be touched, and the penalty of disobedience being instant death. Then, in fresh contradiction of the first narrative, beasts of the field and birds were created, after man; after which Adam, the man, named them all; but how he acquired the power of speech necessary for such a feat is not recorded. For absurdity the next part of the narrative exceeds all that has preceded it. God created cattle and birds in abundance, but yet could not manufacture a suitable partner for the man; so he adopted the strange device of taking from Adam’s body, while he slept, one of his ribs, with which he made a woman. Now it must strike every thoughtful man and woman that this act was the very acme of stupidity, for surely it would have been far easier to have created the woman at once by another fiat, or to have created a spare rib with which to make the woman. To attribute such conduct to the great author is surely the height of irreverence. It is quite evident that both these stories were not written by one author, and that both cannot be true, for they totally contradict each other, and are written in quite different styles, the deity himself being differently designated in each. We are told by certain parties that if we do not believe these stories we shall most certainly be roasted for all eternity; and indeed the New Testament distinctly bears out this fearful fiat. According to this, every man in the whole world who has been unfortunate enough to hear these two accounts read, and who is endowed with sufficient intelligence to discriminate between a pop-gun and an elephant, will inevitably perish; for it is impossible for any sane man to believe two such contradictory statements. It is not within the power of any man to do so. You might just as well demand of a man that he must believe that a brick and a pan-cake are identical articles. He could not do so, no matter how hard he tried.