History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in ChristendomWhite, Andrew Dickson
Religion
History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom
White, Andrew Dickson
Religion and science -- History
attempted to support his view on the authority of Prof. Dana, Prof.
Huxley had no difficulty in showing from Prof. Dana's works that Mr.
Gladstone's inference was utterly unfounded. But, while the fabric
reared by Mr. Gladstone had been thus undermined by Huxley on the
scientific side, another opponent began an attack from the biblical
side. The Rev. Canon Driver, professor at Mr. Gladstone's own
University of Oxford, took up the question in the light of scriptural
interpretation. In regard to the comparative table drawn up by Sir J. W.
Dawson, showing the supposed correspondence between the scriptural and
the geological order of creation, Canon Driver said: "The two series
are evidently at variance. The geological record contains no evidence
of clearly defined periods corresponding to the 'days' of Genesis. In
Genesis, vegetation is complete two days before animal life appears.
Geology shows that they appear simultaneously--even if animal life
does not appear first. In Genesis, birds appear together with aquatic
creatures, and precede all land animals; according to the evidence of
geology, birds are unknown till a period much later than that at which
aquatic creatures (including fishes and amphibia) abound, and they are
preceded by numerous species of land animals--in particular, by insects
and other 'creeping things.'" Of the Mosaic account of the existence
of vegetation before the creation of the sun, Canon Driver said, "No
reconciliation of this representation with the data of science has yet
been found"; and again: "From all that has been said, however reluctant
we may be to make the admission, only one conclusion seems possible.
Read without prejudice or bias, the narrative of Genesis i, creates an
impression at variance with the facts revealed by science." The
eminent professor ends by saying that the efforts at reconciliation are
"different modes of obliterating the characteristic features of Genesis,
and of reading into it a view which it does not express."
Thus fell Mr. Gladstone's fabric of coincidences between the "great
fourfold division" in Genesis and the facts ascertained by geology.
Prof. Huxley had shattered the scientific parts of the structure, Prof.
Driver had removed its biblical foundations, and the last great fortress
of the opponents of unfettered scientific investigation was in ruins.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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