VII - EVOLUTION AND THE CHURCH (John xi: 43, 44)

Summary

“And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”

—John xi: 43, 44.

Such is the nature of the human mind and the influences that surround mankind, that no great truth ever emerges and goes forward to its demonstration and settlement, without producing among men intestine discord, divisions, controversies. Not only has Evolution been subject to this common fate of advancing truth, but it has had peculiar opposition and difficulties. Almost immediately two camps were formed, and the theistic and atheistic views divided thinkers according to their circumstances, dispositions, and previous education, as well as according to the way in which the truth struck them severally. For a long time Evolution was contested, reluctantly received, then finally embraced; but embraced by contradictory parties. The foremost thinkers of England differ from those of Germany. If we might select typical men, I should say Herbert Spencer was the typical man of English thought, and Ernst Haeckel of German or Continental thought. Both sides have taken distinct grounds. The foremost thinkers of England seem to be growing toward a spiritual center, and those of the Continent toward a material center.

The English school tend to repudiate, with growing intensity, that materialism which is accepted on the Continent and pronounce it gross and dangerous.