The Story of Creation as Told By Theology and By ScienceAckland, T. S. (Thomas Suter)
Religion
The Story of Creation as Told By Theology and By Science
Ackland, T. S. (Thomas Suter)
Bible and science; Creation; Religion and science
But next, the variation in the insects and the flowers must take
place at the same time and the same place, or no result will
follow to the insect, while the new variety of orchid must perish
for want of an insect to fertilize it. It is this which makes the
supposition of unlimited time almost useless, because just in
proportion as the time is increased the probability of two
independent events happening simultaneously is diminished.
But even supposing this difficulty out of the way, we meet with an
immediate repetition of it. The insect derives an advantage from
its increased haustellum, but what advantage does the plant derive
from its retiring nectary? How does that help it in the "struggle
of life?" But if it produces no beneficial result, the variation
according to the theory must drop. Hence we should arrive at an
insect suited for a new form of the flower, but no flower suited
to the new form of the insect.
If, then, we reject the idea of superintendence and design, we
have on the one hand an enormous antecedent improbability, while
on the other hand we have only a very small power by which a
direction may be given to the course of events, since by the
hypothesis in any one generation the change, and consequently the
superior advantage, is exceedingly small, and there is a strong
tendency in related changes, as in the case of the orchid and
insect, to move in opposite directions.
But next, in the varieties of animals with which we are
acquainted, there is a certain connexion between the differences
of independent organs, for which this theory does not help us to
account. Thus, for instance, according to this theory the canine
and the feline races are descended from a common ancestor. But
there are several points of difference between a cat and a dog.
There are the differences in the form of jaws, in the dentition;
in the muscles by which the jaws are moved, and in the feet and
claws. All animals of the cat tribe agree in all these respects,
so do all animals of the dog tribe. We never find a cat's head
combined with the feet of a dog. Why is this? Mr. Darwin attempts
to account for it by his supposed law of "correlation of growth,"
but, as has been already shown, any such law, being by Mr.
Darwin's definition the observed sequence of events and nothing
more, is utterly useless, when it is brought forward as a cause
for those events. On this point the theory completely breaks down.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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