SCIENCE & THE BIBLE by Bolton Davidheiser, Ph.D., Chairman o f the Science Division, Biola College
61st Year Originated by ■ R. A . TORREY Thousands of tea« chers and preachers
call Gist a "gold mine" —the most informative pocket com« mentary on the International Sunday School Lessons. Concisely presents the lesson text, sound exposition, numerous Scripture references. Edited by Donald T. Kauffman $ 1 .0 0 a Revell' publication at your bookstore "Let heaven and nature sing . . F O R H O L ID A Y S ING IN G GET
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N ovem ber , 1959, is the 100th anni versary of the publication of the book which made Charles Darwin famous: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. It has been hailed as the book which has influenced modem thinking more than any other, although this d i s t i n c t i o n really belongs to the Bible, which opposes it. It has also been claimed that it eman cipated mankind, though the concept of the survival of the fittest was used by unscrupulous businessmen and in dustrialists to excuse their ruthless methods. Hitler and Mussolini both made use of it, and its influence in communism is indicated by the fact that Karl Marx requested permission to dedicate Das Kapital to Darwin, which permission Darwin refused. Evolutionists now have considerable to say about evolution through coop eration, but competition is still held to be the chief method of evolution. This is just one of the many ways in which, if you are an evolutionist, you can eat your cake and have it too, for it seems that whenever a set of condi tions favors evolution the opposite set of conditions also favors evolution. It is said that Darwin’s serious thinking on the subject began on the Galapagos Islands when he noticed the variation in finches on the differ ent islands. He got the idea that it is important that various potential spe cies be k e p t i s o l a t e d until they develop their separate ways into full species. About a million species of animals are recognized and the exist ence of many more is suspected, and though a single natural barrier might separate many potential species at the same time, it is difficult to imagine enough barriers of sufficient duration to do the job. But then, lack of barriers is also thought to bring about evolu tion through hybridization, though even this implies former barriers which have disappeared again. The most obvious weakness in Dar win’s book was the lack of an explana tion of the origin of differences in living things. Later Hugo DeVries proposed evolution through mutations,
which are hereditary differences that may arise suddenly, and this is gen erally accepted by evolutionists today. But Richard Goldschmidt, late profes sor at the University of California at Berkeley, and George Gaylord Simp son of the American Museum of Natural History are two outstanding evolutionists who have said publically in modem times that mutations are not sufficient to explain evolutionary changes, and it has since been shown that most of the changes DeVries attributed to mutations were not mu tations at all. Darwin is said to have succeeded where others failed because he was the first to give a reasonable explana tion of evolution. But C. D. Darling ton, a British scientist and evolution ist, has pointed out that none of Dar win’s ideas were original and were published by his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, 13 years or more before Charles was bom. The only part of his theory which is left today is the part about natural selection or the survival of the fittest. Rather strange ly, as Darlington points out, Darwin included in the first edition of the Origin of Species a loophole for retreat from his natural selection theory and in later editions he made use of it for retreat when the natural selection theory met adverse criticism. Thus Darwin himself at least partially re pudiated the only part of his theo retical work which is still considered valid. A man who was both a churchman and a teacher of science at the time of the publication of the Origin of Species and who accepted Darwin’s theory as fact, said that those who accepted evolution and still wanted to believe in salvation were forced into the position that Christ does not save men from the penalty of sin but saves them from sinning. This is a form of “modernism.” In a recent poll of scientists and educators of 50 countries and every state in the U.S., Darwin was rated fourth among the greatest scientists of all time, and yet his evolution theory has been influential in aiding fascism, communism, modernism, and atheism.
59 of the well-known and loved Christmas hymns at a priceVall.\eafi afford! Order enough for the entire Sunday School, church or club. Give them as "extra” gifts or use them as your own Christmas greeting. Heavy Paper Cover 20 cents each « $15.00 a hundred O rder T oday from D e p t . KGC9 AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 1816 Chestnut St. / Philadelphia 3, Pa. I m I Bible Questions Answered This is Dr. W. L. Pet- tingill's greatest book. Thousands of them are in use. It takes up hundreds of important questions and answers them in a Scriptural manner. Indexed for topics and for texts. 5 5 9 pages; $4.00 Dunham Publishing Co. Findlay, Ohio Order from your bookseller
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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