July 1926
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
388
This Persian school boy has the ^vantage 0i#lnth l vidual instruction, which is characteristic of the educational system of his country. An advantage of this method, from the teacher s viewpoint at least, lies in the fact that undivided ^ } e ” ° on ‘ ° the pupil’s educational needs implies also undjii turbed observation of his behavior. Thus no dis tractions may be permitted to lnterfere wl^h "I ’ll dious concentration. The young student seems now to be too deeply engrossed in deciphering the odd characters of his native Iranian to notice the cam eraman. This may, however, be owing to a con sciousness of the pedagogic eye resting “ P°“ 1“*"*• But his wise looking instructor seems not averse to an inquisitorial glance at the maker of pictures.
The Fanaticism of Evolution Common sense further revolts at some— yes at most— of ’their conclusions as not only NOT accounting for the phe nomena evident to all ( “ high-brows’'.’ and “ low-brows alike), but as positively contradicted by, or running counter to, the plainest facts of familiar observation, or the abso lutely necessary and unescapable deductions therefrom by men of average and ordinary intelligence. Clarence Darrow said: “ You insult the intelligence of all educated men with your fool religion!” I retort: “ You insult the intelligence of the average man by your wild hypotheses, unsupported by proof.” • To really hold, and to carry out logically, most of the detailed steps in physical development— or mutation— neces sarily involved in this wonderful “ continuous progression from simpler to more complex forms under the operation of resident forces acting in accordance with the certain fixed iawa”— would indicate that the holder and advocate was— “ plumb CRAZY!” No inmate of an asylum for the insane, laboring under wild vagaries and obsessions, would be any crazier—more unbalanced! Yet they, too, sincerely believe the delusions they so soberly present, and to which they so tenaciously cling. Houdini says: “ No class of men is more easy to deceive, trick, mislead, than your ‘ experts’ . They have a hobby. They see but one thing. Continually exploring, experiment ing, they— with an eagerness and abandon that is amusing (amazing)—will, in their zeal, follow any ignis fatuus into unfamiliar, untried paths under the delusion that ‘this is likely to prove a wonderful discovery.’ ” And my own per sonal observation confirms the truth of this statement. “ Professing themselves to be wise,” these pseudo-scien tific philosophers have become Just plain “ fools” in tlje eyes of sensible people of average intelligence. They have not succeeded (this they now admit) in making men out of monkeys; but some of them have succeeded admirably (as politely suggested by Prof. Conklin) in making second- class monkeys (or asses) of themselves, to the amusement, the Justly deserved ridicule, the disgust of the overwhelm ing majority of men and women of average intelligence and observation. “ Oh! wad some power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, an’ foolish notion,” even us,— Biology, Zoology, and Paleontology! May the Creation Limit the Creator? But say some, “ Evolution does not necessarily exclude God as the originator (the Creator?) of all forms of life, and the General Superintendent or Supervising Director of (Continued on page 433)
Tueou»mm* mumm »x\ewlurK
fatal to the theory of evolution as Prof. Le Conte defines It, “ the op era tic of resident forces,” etc. The one resident force indispensable to such désire or volition (intelligence) is not there to "operate.” „ The Ambitious (? ) Amoeba No matter what certain pseudo-scientists (for this is sci ence falsely so-called— not even a science at all! Lord Kel vin and others have said, “no scientist of repute ever claimed that evolution was science; it is only a tentative, as yet unproven, hypothesis” )— no matter what the sopho mores may tell us, and with pompous, high-sounding phrases and uncompromising dogmatism endeavor to force us to accept,— plain, every-day common sense positively, with „unyielding stubbornness, refuses to admit the self determinative volition of the mollusk to become a crus tacean— or a fish; of the fish to exchange gills for lungs; of the cold-blooded batrachian or lizard to prefer warm blood; of the progenitor of the marsupial to wish to carry itB immature progeny in a pocket; or of the ruminant to apprehend the advantage of one stomach over four, etc., etc. Assumptions are absolutely prerequisite to the system of progressive mutations demanded by their theory of the pro gressive evolution of the different orders, geneia, species, etc., from less perfect, less efficient antecedent forms. Equally positive and unyielding is the refusal, because it is equally unthinkable, to concede the possibility “ by the operation of resident forces” of realizing such an idea,— if conceived, or, ab-extra, suggested,— of such a volition even it they were capable of originating it.
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