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
The proof of all this we owe to geology--a science born of the present
century. This science establishes the law of _universal continuity_ of
events, through infinite _time_, as astronomy does that of _universal
inter-relation_ of objects through infinite _space_. How great the
change these two sciences have made in the realm of human thought!
Until the birth of modern astronomy the intellectual _space-horizon_
of the human mind was bounded substantially by the dimensions of
our earth; sun, moon, and stars, being but inconsiderable bodies
circulating at a little distance about the earth, and for our behoof.
Astronomy was then but the geometry of the curious lines traced by
these wandering fires on the concave blackboard of heaven. With the
first glance through a telescope the phases of Venus and the satellites
of Jupiter, revealed clearly to the mind the existence of other
worlds besides and like our own. In that moment the idea of _infinite
space_, full of worlds like our own, was for the first time completely
realized, and became thenceforward the heritage of man. In that moment
the _intellectual horizon of man was infinitely extended_. So also
until the birth of geology, about the beginning of the present century,
the intellectual _time-horizon_ of the human mind was bounded by six
thousand years. The discovery about that time of vertebrate remains,
all wholly different from those now inhabiting the earth, revealed
the existence of other time-faunas, besides our own and the idea of
infinite time, of which the life of humanity is but an epoch, was
born in the mind of man; and again the intellectual horizon of man
was infinitely extended. These two are the grandest ideas, and their
introduction the grandest epochs, in the intellectual history of man.
We have long ago accepted and readjusted our mental furniture to the
requirements of the one, but the necessary readjustment to the other is
not yet complete.
All inorganic forms, then, it is admitted, have come by evolution. But
how is it with organic or living forms? Let us see.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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