The Origin of the World According to Revelation and ScienceDawson, John William, Sir
Religion
The Origin of the World According to Revelation and Science
Dawson, John William, Sir
Bible and science; Religion and science
In the Primordial or oldest fossiliferous rocks next in succession to
those great Eozoic formations in which protozoa alone have been
discovered, we find the remains of crustaceans, mollusks, and
radiates--such as shrimps, shell-fish, and starfishes--which appear to
have inhabited the bottom of a shallow ocean. Among these were some
genera belonging to the higher forms of invertebrate life, but
apparently as yet no vertebrated animals. Fishes were then introduced,
and have left their remains in the upper Silurian rocks, and very
abundantly in the Devonian and Carboniferous, in the latter of which
also the first reptiles occur, but are principally members of that
lower group to which the frogs and newts and their allies belong. The
animal kingdom appears to have reached no higher than the reptiles in
the Palaeozoic or primary period of geology, and its reptiles are
comparatively small and few; though fishes had attained to a point of
perfection which they have not since exceeded. There was also,
especially in the Carboniferous age, an abundant and luxuriant
vegetation. The Mesozoic period is, however, emphatically the age of
reptiles. This class then reached its climax, in the number,
perfection, and magnitude of its species, which filled all those
stations in the economy of nature now assigned to the mammalia. Birds
also belong to this era, though apparently much less numerous and
important than at present. Only a few species of small mammals, of the
lowest or marsupial type, appear as a presage of the mammalian
creation of the succeeding tertiary era. In these two geological
periods, then--the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic--we find, first, the lower
_sheretzim_ represented by the invertebrata and the fishes, then the
great reptiles and the birds; and it can not be denied that, if we
admit that the Mosaic day under consideration corresponds with these
geological periods, it would be impossible better to characterize
their creations in so few words adapted to popular comprehension. I
may add that all the species whose remains are found in the Palaeozoic
and Mesozoic rocks are extinct, and known to us only as fossils; and
their connection with the present system of nature consists only in
their forming with it a more perfect series than our present fauna
alone could afford, unless, indeed, we should find reason to believe
that any modern animals are their modified descendants. They belong to
the same system of types, but are parts of it which have served their
purpose and have been laid aside. The coincidences above noted between
geology and Scripture may be summed up as follows:
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