Evolution: Its nature, its evidence, and its relation to religious thought — John Shaqi
Evolution: Its nature, its evidence, and its relation to religious thoughtLeConte, Joseph
Religion
Evolution: Its nature, its evidence, and its relation to religious thought
LeConte, Joseph
Evolution (Biology); Evolution (Biology) -- Religious aspects; Religion and science
_Universality of Evolution._--Evolution as a _process_ is not
confined to one thing, the egg, nor as a doctrine is it confined
to one department of science--biology. The process pervades the
whole universe, and the doctrine concerns alike every department of
science--yea, every department of human thought. It is literally one
half of all science. Therefore, its truth or falseness, its acceptance
or rejection, is no trifling matter, affecting only one small corner
of the thought-realm. On the contrary, it affects profoundly the
foundations of philosophy, and therefore the whole domain of thought.
It determines the whole attitude of the mind toward Nature and God.
I have said evolution constitutes one half of all science. This may
seem to some a startling proposition. I stop to make it good.
Every system of correlated parts may be studied from two points of
view, which give rise to two departments of science, one of which--and
the greater and more complex--is evolution. The one concerns changes
within the system by action and reaction between the parts, producing
equilibrium and stability; the other concerns the progressive movement
of the system, as a whole, to higher and higher conditions--the
movement of the point of equilibrium itself, by constant slight
disturbance and readjustment of parts on a higher plane, with more
complex inter-relations. The one concerns the laws of sustentation of
the system, the other the laws of evolution. The one concerns things as
they are, the other the process by which they become so. Now, Nature
as a whole is such a system of correlated parts. Every department and
sub-department of Nature, whether it be the solar system or the earth,
or the organic kingdom, or human society, or the human body, is such a
system of correlated parts, and is therefore subject to evolution. We
can best make this thought clear by examples:
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