SOMETHING NEW YOU WILL WANT
by Bolton Davidheiser, Chairman, Science Division, Biola College
science and the
Bible
“S ic U m
t i l e S a w z y e
headfirst into space from one of the platforms. As a group of white people watched the performance in 1954,* the highest leap was from a platform 78 feet above the ground, but it is re ported that dives have been made from heights of as much as 100 feet. Ac cepted procedure requires that a man refrain from extending his hands and that he touch the ground first with his head. Although the earth is well spaded and pulversized, a small error in calculations would result in a brok en neck. The elastic vines which stop his fall are irregularly coiled and twisted. The tower sways from the impact as the diver reaches the end of his tether, and although this helps to lessen the suddenness of the stop, the displace ment would need to be taken into account when the vines are measured. Another engineering feature in the construction of the tower is an ar rangement which causes the diving platform to collapse as the man reach es the end of his fall. This helps to soften the jolt but adds to the prob lem of correctly estimating the proper length of the vines. Finally, the diver must throw him self as far as possible from the tower as he leaps, since the landing area is a slope and if he hits the ground too far uphill the vines will be too long to stop his fall in time. The slope is just right to give him the opportun ity, if he has the skill, to land on his feet the second time he touches the ground, after the vines pull him up the hill and toward the tower dur ing the rebound. Loren Eisely, a scientist of note, who is strongly committed to the evo lutionary view, agrees with Wallace and says, “ There is every reason to believe that whatever the nature of the forces involved in the production of the human brain, a long slow com petition of human group with human group or race with race would not have resulted in such similar mental potentialities among all peoples every where. Something — some other fac tor — has escaped our attention.” The factor which has escaped his attention and the attention of many other scientists, is God. ♦The National Geographic Magazine. January, 1955, Page 77.
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace both got the same idea from reading the same article. Each used it to develop the same theory of evolu tion and their views were presented to the scientific world on the same day, July 1, 1858. The idea was that since every species produces more in dividuals than can reach maturity, there is a struggle for survival in na ture, and evolution has resulted be cause the individuals best suited to their environment tend to survive in greater numbers than those less well adapted to the environment. The two men did not quarrel over priority, and they became good friends. However, there arose one ser ious difference of opinion between them. Wallace had spent many years living with primitive people and be lieved that the theory of evolution proposed by Darwin and himself could not explain the development of the brain of savages, for uncivilized peo ple are hardly inferior to Europeans in their mental ability. He had ob served that these people have much better brains than they need in order to be successful in the kind of life they live, and he said that rivalry among them could not have brought about the production of such brains. When Darwin received from Wallace a paper expressing this view, it is said that he wrote on it a large “ No!” and underlined it three times. He wrote to Wallace, “ If you had not told me you had made these remarks I should have thought they had been added by someone else. I differ grievously from you and am very sorry for it.” But Wallace was right and his criticism of Darwin’s view has not been answered. Although better and more import ant examples could be cited, let us consider a custom of the natives of Pentecost Island, in the New Hebrides, because it is so Unusual and spectacu lar. Once a year a tower is built on the side of a hill in the jungle. It is constructed of trees and poles which are bound together by vines. It is an chored to the ground on the uphill side by more vines. On the downhill side at various levels are small plat forms shaped like diving boards. Men mount this rickety structure, fasten to their ankles vines which are also at tached to the tower, and then dive
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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