rch and the Schools, broadly speaking, are
in serious conflict with each other today. Where lies the cause? If the
Church is denying and fighting the demonstrated =facts= of science, then
the Church is clearly at fault and ought to get right at once.

But this is not so, for the conflict is altogether over unproven theories,
and has nothing to do with demonstrated scientific facts. And so this takes
us at once and completely out of the realm of science and lands us in that
of speculative philosophy--a fact that shows how unreasonable and even
foolish the conflict is. For the thing that has set the Church and the
Schools into battle array against each other is that speculative guess
concerning origins called the =Theory of Evolution=. This lies at the heart
of the opposition that each of these great institutions feels toward the
other.

It is true that a certain amount of the trouble arises from
misunderstanding, because the term "evolution" is used in so many loose,
illogical, and unscientific ways; but back of all misuse of the term there
is a fundamental cause on which this antagonism rests, and that cause is
found in the nature of the theory and its effects on those who consistently
believe it.

The technical meaning of the term may be said to be a structural change in
the direction of development into higher forms of existence, brought about
by internal force without external aid.

There is also a scientific classification of the subject, into sub-organic,
organic, and super-organic evolution. Sub-organic evolution applies to the
development of non-living matter; organic, to the development of vegetable
and animal life; and super-organic, to the development of intellectual,
moral, and spiritual life. But while the subject is thus classified for
convenience, it is all one doctrine, and is meant to describe one process
of development from the non-living realm to the spiritual.

There is also one theory which is called causal, and another which is
called modal, evolution. According to the former, evolution is the first
cause of all life, which, of course, excludes God as the First Cause; and
according to the latter, evolution is the mode, or method, used by God in
creation.

Now, the Church has vital reasons for fighting this philosophical guess.
One reason is, that it is entirely unsupported by =facts=, and is therefore
altogether unproven. But if this were the only reason, the Church could be
convicted of the s