Smithson's Theory of Special CreationSmithson, Noble
Religion
Smithson's Theory of Special Creation
Smithson, Noble
Creation
Life is bestowed on the several species of animal under divers
conditions. Thus, it is bestowed on the fertilized human ovum in the
genital organs of the mother, for the reason that this is the best, if
not the only, place for it to develop and grow. It is bestowed on the
eggs of fishes in the water; and upon the eggs of birds, after they
have passed out of the bodies of the mother bird. Let us consider the
hen’s egg for a moment. When laid it contains a fertilized ovum and
“the white and the yellow” of the egg. It is a complete and finished
egg. But it has no life. Unless it be placed under a sitting hen or in
an incubator, it will decay and disintegrate.
The hen or incubator merely keeps it warm during the period of
incubation. By the end of the twenty-first day, the contents of the
egg-shell have been converted into a live bird, with a skeleton,
muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, brain, eyes, ears, heart, lungs,
liver, wings, legs, feet, etc. There is no skeleton, model, nor any
other performed outline of the coming chick, in the egg; for the
contents of the egg-shell are a homogeneous mass of protoplasm. There
is no reason to suppose that the warmth of the hen’s body, nor that
the heat of the incubator, is, alone, adequate to impart life to the
egg. Each part of the egg is necessarily kept at the same temperature
as that of every other part. For this reason we cannot believe that
mere heat differentiates one part of the white and yellow into bones,
another part into muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, etc.
In his Principles of Biology, (vol. 1, p. 116), Spencer says:
“There is experimental proof that seeds may, under conditions
unfavorable to germination, retain for ten, twenty, and some even
thirty years, the power to germinate when due moisture and warmth are
supplied.”
Now if these seeds are alive, what becomes of the life in them during
these long periods of quiescence? There are untold millions of grains
of wheat and of corn. None of these grains will germinate until they
are supplied with “moisture and warmth.” Can we believe that heat and
moisture alone have any creative forces? If so, all the sands of the
sea shore ought to be living creatures.
Let us consider the acorn. When mature, it falls to the ground. If
it be supplied with a proper degree of heat and moisture, it will
germinate in a short time. But it will never germinate, so long as it
is kept in a cool, dry place. Suppose an acorn is deprived of heat
and moisture for five years; that it is then supplied with them and
immediately germinates. When did the life of the acorn begin? Did
it begin when the acorn ripened and dropped to the ground or when it
germinated? If it was alive when it first matured, and germinated five
years afterward, what became of its life between its maturity and its
germination? Is it not reasonable to suppose that the Creator endowed
it with life when it germinated?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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