The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

LIFE AND ITS DE YELOPMENT. 153clusion that all organized existence can betraced to " only a few forms," or to " one,"according to the alternatives suggested byDarwin in the closing sentence of his book.Waiving, then, meanwhile, as the state ofscientific evidence warrants us to do, thequestion of the probable number of primordialforms in which organized existence appeared,there is at least another definite resultto be recorded as following from even amodified recognition of a theory of development,that is the rejection of 6elief in thesinzultaneous origin of all species or ordersof animal life existing now in the world.The scientific conception of the history ofanimal life is, that there has been a historicalprogression in the appearance of animals,in so far as lower orders took precedenceof higher, while the higher have shown largepower of adaptation to the circumstances inwhich they have been placed. In accordancewith the whole principles regulating the relationsof religion and science, religious men,scientific and non-scientific, will readily acquiescein this modification of general belief,as largely favored by evidence which geologysupplies, and supported by testimony drawn