Smithson's Theory of Special CreationSmithson, Noble
Religion
Smithson's Theory of Special Creation
Smithson, Noble
Creation
Each human eye has the same parts, the same construction, form, and
substantially the same size that every other such eye has; and performs
the same functions. So all human eyes occupy the same relative position
in the face. We are, therefore, compelled to believe that human eyes
are not produced by accident nor by chance; but they develop and grow
by force of a universal law; or that they are made by the Creator.
But the almost universal belief is that “heredity” or “nature” causes
the child’s eyes to grow, as those of the parents grew.
A cause is described as: “An antecedent, upon which an effect follows
according to the law of nature.” (Cent. Dic. 1, p. 868.)
Ordinarily, the word “cause” is understood to mean a force or agency
which produces a given effect or result, which could not happen without
that force or agency. Such a force or agency is termed an efficient
cause. (Cent. Dic. 3, p. 1849.)
It would be absurd to suppose that the eyes of the father and mother
cause or produce the eyes of the child. It follows that there is no
causative relation between the eyes of the parents and those of the
child. The most that could be said in this direction is that the same
force or agency which produced the eyes of the parents, namely: the
Creator, also caused and produced those of the child.
The fact that the father and mother have eyes is no reason why the
child should have them; for the forces and motions which made the
eyes of the parents ceased to exist long before the formation of the
germ-cell from which the child is produced.
Each human eye is a new combination of the atoms and cells of which
it is composed. No atom, in it, was ever a part of an eye of either
parent. The atoms and cells, of which it is made, are grouped into new
chemical combinations; and these are mechanically arranged in such a
manner as to construct the human eye for the first and last time. The
forces and motions, which build up each eye are peculiar to it. The
work done in making the eyes of the parents, has nothing to do with
the making of the eyes of the child; for the atoms and cells which are
employed in constructing the child’s eyes must be assembled and grouped
into the necessary chemical combinations and mechanical arrangements as
if the father and mother had no eyes. In other words, each eye must be
made anew, without regard to the eyes of the father and mother or any
other person. If a man make a million bricks, it requires the same work
to make the last one that it did to make the first one; so if a hundred
million silver dollars are coined at a mint it requires, identically,
the same work to coin each of them that it did to make every other; and
so of the eyes.
While discussing “organs of extreme perfection,” and referring to the
imaginary evolution of the human eye, in his Origin of Species (vol. 1,
p. 228), Darwin says:
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