The Churches and Modern Thought: An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candourPhelips, Vivian
Religion
The Churches and Modern Thought: An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candour
Phelips, Vivian
Rationalism
With but very few exceptions, every biological student admits
our animal origin. The ideas of most people, however, on this
subject are hazy in the extreme, and no wonder, when the study of
Evolution has never been included in their school curriculum. Men
(and in very rare cases women) pick up a few crumbs of knowledge
concerning the scientific theory of their origin, and then, from
want of leisure or from religious motives, or from various causes,
they drop the subject. Often they are put off by the dry details
of the evidence and the technical phrases before they have obtained
a real grip of the subject. They do not even know some of the more
simple and obvious proofs which alone would have sufficed to convince
them. One finds that men's views concerning Evolution are coloured
by the opinion prevailing at the time when they themselves were once
faintly interested in the subject; and thus there is, at present,
an inertia of ignorance, due to the misconceptions and prejudices of
older generations. The opinions of our elders, being formed on a riper
experience, very properly enlist our respect; but, unfortunately,
in this instance they are based upon false premises, and so lead us
astray. People who remember when Darwin first propounded his theory,
and the violent, not to say virulent, opposition with which it was
received by the Church, only too often remain in blissful ignorance of
all that has since transpired. It is quite enough for them that they
are erect, tailless, speaking, reflecting bipeds. With attributes such
as these, they fondly imagine that they are separated from the beast
by a gulf that neither Evolution nor any other theory could possibly
bridge. Whatever the reasons may be--and there are many--the vast
majority of Christians not only remain woefully ignorant of Evolution,
but have no desire to learn anything more about it. They know it is
opposed to Bible teaching. They prefer, as it has been well said,
to consider themselves fallen angels rather than elevated apes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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