Chapter II
Evolution
I shall try, now, to outline the teachings of Science, especially as it presents the Theory of Evolution. It is but fair to state in the beginning of this presentation of the subject that such advances of scientific thought as the Evolution theory is comparatively recent. Even in the days of Huxley, Darwin and other investigators, of only a few decades ago, if not at present, it was an unpopular thing, and subjected the author to every kind of criticism and ridicule. But previously it was so much worse and culminated in recantation, burning of books and manuscripts, or else the burning of the author himself, or, even, to his be-heading. It is not difficult to comprehend, when we take this state of things into consideration, why science had a hard time to obtain an audience. Throughout all the centuries up to the twentieth century A.D. there were no representatives of that class referred to in the preceding chapter who claim that no conflict exists between the teachings of the Bible and the theory of Evolution. Everything that could not be substantiated by a “thus saith the Lord” was considered dangerous heresy.
Christopher Columbus, and a very few others who were afraid to publish their opinions, believed the earth to be round, over four hundred years ago, and when Columbus made the publication he was in a good way to be burned at the stake except that his belief was demonstrated to be true. He was publicly mocked even after the proof was too certain for the officers of the law to punish him. Science continued to quietly, but persistently, “get across” certain, more or less, important advancements—some engaged in their work taking punishment at the stake; some recanting and denying their discoveries; while others were subjected to banishment or ostracism.
Discoveries leading up to the belief that the earth had been populated much longer than the chronology of the Bible would allow, and, finally, to the knowledge that there were prosperous as well as populous civilizations long before Adam, stimulates much research in the fields of Geology, Astronomy, and Archaeology. These researches have continued, but after a critical study of Botany and Biology were added to the list, the progress of unorthodoxy has been very rapid. Along with this progress, and, as a matter of fact, the greatest cause of the advancement, was a spirit of toleration, for which we are deeply indebted to the establishment of the great American democracy. It was no longer popular to burn heretics at the stake. Some of the leaders in this democratic renaissance were also much interested in the logical application of the inherent power to reason. And so research has had some encouragement in America from the beginning, and this spirit of toleration spread all over the more highly civilized countries of the world, until to-day it is not only no disgrace nor crime to assist in the advancement of science, but it is a distinct honor.
Evolutionists, now without fear, advance the theory (Believing that God is the author and Creator of all things) that way back in the very misty past, millions or billions of years ago, the elements now composing the material universe were spread over space in a vapor, or, as sometimes stated, a general cloud of “star dust”. There was motion in this chaotic cosmos, and the motion created heat, and both heat and motion increased. As the unnumbered cycles of time passed, there were formed nuclei or centers of density in this gaseous mass, which finally became suns and these suns, in their rapid revolutions, threw off great masses which continuing similar motions to the parent body kept in a circle or orbit about the sun from which each had been cast off, at the same time keeping up its own revolutions by which it cast off other masses known as satellites or moons, and which continued the motion of its parent in following an orbit about its planet. One of these planets, cast off from one of these suns, is our own little Earth. It was still a seething rolling mass of vapors, gasses, and solids, flexible enough that it cast off our one beautiful, silvery moon. The heat was so great that the, now, waters of the earth was a hot vapor. The cooling process required millions of years. If the vapor of moisture farthest removed from the center of greatest heat cooled and condensed enough to fall as hot rain, it was again vaporized, again condensed, and so on, for ages.
The fundamental law of Nature is the “law of Equilibrium of opposing forces”. Everything is what it is, and everything that has been was what it was, as a result of this equilibrium of opposing forces.
In the process of time the earth was sufficiently cooled that lakes of hot water formed on the surface, and as they became cooler and more permanent, conditions became suited to the organization of protoplasmic elements into cells constituting animal and vegetable matter. In this primeval laboratory these cells grew and were actually one-cell plants and animals. Heat, moisture, and sunlight were so blended that the incubation was rapid, and after still more ages the earth was covered with the most dense vegetation and populated with a great variety of animal life, some specimens of which were so huge that it is difficult for us to comprehend how immensely big they were.
The earth was still unsettled, it being covered with but a thin crust which had cooled enough to be a solid, the interior was a restless surging mass of steam and molten minerals. The cooling and settling of the surface produced terrific explosions and upheavals which changed the shape of the crust. Mountains would shoot up, covering great forests, and causing the seas to change their positions, swallowing up myriads of land animals and leaving water animals to die in the slush and mud. Seas and mountains would, again, exchange places, until when the cooling process had advanced to the point of comparative stability of the surface, the mountains and dry land were literally filled with the remains of sea animals and enormous deposits of the primeval forests, which in our age have supplied man with coal and oil, and many interesting and useful fossils.
Ferocious predatory animals survived by preying upon the less offensive; these, in turn devoured the more defenseless, who survived by developing defensive characteristics and modes of flight. Life was perpetuated by the law of the “survival of the fittest” aided by the equilibrium of opposing forces.
Changes of season, changes of environment, including food and habits of living, produced marked changes in physical characteristics so that in the succession of generations, family characteristics differed noticeably from remote parents. The origin of Species is accounted for in this way. Individuals of the same group becoming widely separated and developing offspring under greatly differing conditions, after a while would so differ from the original parent stock as to display but little kinship. Equines with soft three-toed feet, running over the hard ground developed hard hoofs, and other differences in shape and size to meet the demands of the environment. Felines, under different conditions, developed—some—stripes, some spots, while others, still, maintained a tawny color, each to suit its particular field and habit of taking food, and to protect it from those who might seek it as prey. The Amphibians represented those who learned to live either in the water or on dry land. If they were pursued by enemies in water, they could make their escape to the land, and likewise they could flee to the water when attacked by land. And so through the long list of numberless hosts of birds, beasts, and creeping things which inhabited the earth, their survival and progress depended upon eternal vigilance. Those, who from the lack of defensive characteristics, represented by size, teeth, claws, hard coverings, wings, or nimbleness of foot or flight, were forced to depend upon the development of the intellectual faculties, and evade the pursuing enemy by cunning, deception, and the construction of devices to serve as shields of defense.
The evolution from unicellular to the multi-cellular, and from the lower forms of life to the complex or higher types, was not a smooth and even process, without its hindrances and setbacks. Everything in nature that moves is apt to have an undulating motion, light, water, air, electricity, etc; move in waves. So is every advance, vegetable, animal, or human, subject to its ebbs and floods of progress. In the upward trend the masses of any particular family might linger in the old rut, while the more happily situated cousin made such strides as to leave the old herd and fail even to retain the original family features until it requires considerable skill to trace the relationships which were once apparent.
During all the ages of the development of animal and vegetable life, the earth itself was still subject to changes. Earth quakes and minor erosions still go on, but the instability of the earth’s crust was much greater in pre-historic ages than in the more recent times. While the Archaeologist has hardly touched the great historic record which is indelibly written in the rocks and hidden in the bosom of the earth, enough has been brought to light to indicate that no place can be found where there is not a record of changes which prove the ripe old age of Mother Earth.
As time passed, which might be recorded in cycles of millions of years each, there appeared the sub-man or anthropoid (man-like) animal who had advanced beyond the common standards of the average reptilian, and began a species of his own. He began to use his head in his efforts at obtaining food and in securing protection from his enemies. Several types of early man have been unearthed and described under such names as Eoantropus, or dawn man, which was a little more human in his anatomy than the Pithecanthropus, or subman. Then the Homo Heidelbergensis (Heidelberg man) who approached a little more toward the human, in fact he is sometimes declared to be a real human, and possibly the remote progenitor of the Neanderthal man who passes all critics as being human in every respect, though not passing a very good intelligence test. This early man was master of the earth over fifty thousand years ago. He used fire, which discovery, no doubt, gave a great impetus to advancement along other lines. He was able to claim the caves, preempted from the bear, and other ferocious would-be occupants. With the use of fire and the protection offered by the caves, he was able to inhabit colder regions than his more ignorant ancestors. His weapons were of polished flint arrow heads, and, of course, while they could not be expected to remain for our discovery like the stone implements, we are bound to give him credit for preparation and use of many kinds of wooden clubs and spears.
But the man we are directly interested in just now, appeared upon the scene, according to the estimates of experts in reading the secrets of the rocks, forty to fifty thousand years ago. His predecessor, most likely, his progenitor, the Neanderthal man had consumed a thousand centuries in coming up to the one we now introduce—the Cro-Magnon man or the first Homo Sapiens. This is the type that we unhesitatingly denominate as our own type. While he, also, lived in the old stone age (Paleolithic age) it was the later Paleolithic, and it was due to his acumen that the New Stone Age began to be ushered in. His progress may have been slow, indeed, it was very slow, but when we think how little progress was accomplished by our own modern, civilized man until the last hundred years, we should be charitable enough to withhold severe criticism from the Cro-Magnards.
These Neolithic (New Stone Age) people domesticated animals for beast of burden if not for food—the reindeer, the horse, and many other animals. They probably dressed themselves with the skins of slaughtered animals—their drawings (in which art they showed considerable skill) indicate that they not only used skins for clothing but also to construct tents for their homes.
But man was not perfect. He possessed a disposition, however, very like what is still a human trait—he seemed fond of war. His progress in population of the earth, as well as almost every other phase of advancement, was retarded by the inherent for combat. He was not in a paradise of ease. He had to struggle to keep the wolf from the door—both literally and figuratively. Every invention, no matter if, to us, very simple, hastened his progress in the ability to make further advances toward the crude civilization with which history begins. During the historic period, which has been pushed back materially by the discoveries and decipherings of archaeological experts, we can follow the progress of Earth’s human population with more or less accuracy, and while that would be in itself interesting, it is not a part of this investigation. We are concerned here in following the theory of the origin of things—the creations of the heavens and the earth and all things contained therein after the manner of scientists in accounting for the things that are. If I have done this in the fore going pages, we are prepared now to begin the comparison and see if the two versions agree, and if they do not agree, to point out instances in which the agreement occurs.
It would be foolish to claim that I have included all of the Theory of Evolution in detail in these few pages. Just the “high places” have been touched. Much has been left out that would tend to give the reasons for the existence of the theory. As in giving the Bible teachings I simply gave a kind of outline of the idea which permeates the entire book, in this chapter I have endeavored to give but an outline of the teachings of the theory of evolution, and a recapitulation of what I have tried to do might be given as follows:
1. God the Author and Creator. 2. Space filled with nebular “star dust”. 3. The organization of every material element in the cosmos, or working universe. 4. Life on earth, first simple, growing more and more complex and abundant. 5. Great changes in the earth itself, a result of the cooling process. 6. The struggle for existence, and the survival of the fittest. 7. The origin of species as a natural sequel to irregular advancement. 8. The appearance of anthropoids and sub-men, some of whom out-stripped the herd, and developed a race of human beings, but too low in intelligence to be classified as Homo Sapiens. 9. The real Homo Sapiens in the Cro-Magnon type. 10. That the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest continues even to our day, always steered by the inevitable influence of the law of the equilibrium of opposing forces.
I desire to request every reader to carefully compare the two chapters and draw his own conclusion as to whether both can be correct. If there is no disagreement, they could both be true. If they give conflicting stories about the same thing, they can not both be true. Of course, they could both be false even if they agree, or the same could be said if they should wholly disagree.