Inductive geology, therefore, deals not with the formation of a world, but =with the ruins of one=; it can teach us absolutely nothing about origins. The latter problem lies across the boundary line in the domain of philosophy and theology, and to these systems of thought we may cheerfully leave the task of readjustment in view of the facts here presented. A few disconnected thoughts along these lines I have ventured to insert here, not strictly as a part of my purely scientific argument, but as an appendix. FOOTNOTE: [94] "History," p. 320. APPENDIX APPENDIX REFLECTIONS In the preceding pages I have endeavored to develop a scientific argument pure and simple. Yet I do not feel called upon to apologize in any way for attempting now to show the connection between an inductive scheme of Geology as set forth in the body of this work and the religion of Christianity; though my remarks along this line must necessarily be very brief. The most fundamental idea of religion is the fatherhood of God as our Creator. The only true basis of morality lies in our relationship to Him as His creatures. During the latter half of the nineteenth century the Biblical idea of a creation at some definite and not very remote period in the past became much modified by reason of certain theories of evolution, which explained the origin of plants and animals as the result of slow-acting causes, now in operation around us, prolonged over immense ages of time. These theories, though built up wholly on the current Geology as a foundation, were yet supposed to be firmly established in science, and after a spirited discussion among biologists for a few years, were almost universally accepted in some form or other by the religious leaders of Christendom. And though the "Theistic Evolution" of recent years may be supposed to have modified somewhat the stern heartlessness of pure Darwinism, it still leaves the Christian world quite at variance with the old Pauline doctrines regarding good and evil, creation, redemption, the atonement, etc. And these are not the only effects of the general acceptance of these ideas as an explanation of the origin of things. We see their moral effects in the generation now coming on the stage of action--men educated in an atmosphere of Evolution, and accustomed from youth to the idea that all progress, whether in the individual or the race, is to be reached only by a ceaseless struggle for existence and survival at the expense of others. In the words of Sir William Dawson, these doctrines have "stimulated to an intense degree that popular unrest so natural to an age discontented with its lot ... and which threatens to overthrow the whole fabric of society as at present constituted."[95]