Divine Pedigree of Man - Tapa blanda

IN attempting to fulfil a task so important, and from a layman's point of view so difficult, as that of outlining a scientific basis of Christian theism, I feel it to be due to my readers that I should state the causes which led me to undertake it, and the principles by which I have been guided in carrying it to a conclusion. It is scarcely necessary to remark that this book was not written for the benefit of those who have already found in Holy Writ sufficient evidence to convince them of the existence of an intelligent Great First Cause. Nor was it written to convince anybody of the soundness of the theory of organic evolution. It was written for the benefit of that large and constantly enlarging class of men who are imbued with the ultra-scientific dogma that nothing in either physical science or spiritual philosophy is worthy of belief if it is not confirmed by a series of well-authenticated facts, — a congeries of observable natural phenomena. This class of course includes many who are not themselves scientists, but who, having been unable to assimilate the logic of the theologian, pin their faith upon the asseverations of those scientists who claim to have definitely ascertained that there is nothing in man that cannot be dragged to light by means of the surgeon's instruments or the appliances of the chemist's laboratory; or upon the reasoning of those logicians who claim to have discovered, by the process of inductive inquiry, that there is " no logical necessity " for the existence of an intelligent Deity. It was written more especially for the benefit of that large and constantly multiplying class of intelligent students who have become convinced of the substantial correctness of the general theory of organic evolution, many of whom have, at the same time, been led to adopt the atheistic conclusions reached by the great pioneers in that science. Not that all, or even the greater part, of the students of evolution have been thus led astray; for they have not.