ies
gaining the use of and developing organs which existed essentially in
the lower form but were small, imperfect, and useless, because not
needed. Thus the hand and arm in man are structurally or essentially the
same as the leg of the brute, the wing of the bird, the flipper of the
whale, and the fin of the fish; and the endeavor to adapt itself to the
water caused the bird to develop a fin, as by a similar process the
fore-leg of brutes developed into the human arm and hand.

For our present consideration, we need not distinguish between atheistic
and theistic evolution, as the latter is subject to the fundamental
objections urged against evolution in general, and is, like atheistic
evolution, without a single fact to support it and in direct
contradiction of all that is known of the laws in operation now, and as
far back as knowledge penetrates. Moreover, so-called "theistic"
evolution is universally approved by infidels and skeptics and is used
by them as a favorite means of assault on revealed Truth.

Historical Review.

While in our own day the names of certain English and German scientists
(Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, Tyndall, Romanes, Buechner, Vogt, Haeckel) are
inseparably connected with a history of this hypothesis, its roots are
found far back in the early ages of Greek philosophy. A theory of
evolutionary development was first propounded by Greek thinkers living
about 600 years B. C. The human mind is ever on the search for unifying
principles, principles which account for entire groups of natural
phenomena, and not for isolated phenomena only. The Greek mind sought a
principle by which to account for the manifold and diverse forms of life
in nature. Whence do all things come? How have they come to be what they
are? Questions about the nature of the universe in which we live have
been asked from the very beginning. The moment the human mind began to
reflect the notion that the vegetation which covers the earth, the
animals which inhabit it, the rocks and hills, the mountains and valleys
which constitute its physical features, may have undergone changes in
past time, and that all the phenomena which constitute the animal,
vegetable and mineral worlds as they now exist, are but modifications of
other forms which have had their day and their philosophy, the idea of
development became prominent. The early Greek philosophers were the first
to attempt answers to these problems. Many of them held that all things