asis of
moral obligation from the brute, but only a better idea of right and
wrong, because on a higher plane in the process of evolution. It
strikes at the root of the doctrine that men are, by their origin and
nature, under peculiar and special obligations to God. In the words of
the late Dr. Robert Patterson, such a theory tends to 'obliterate a
belief in the divine origin and sanction of morality, and in the
existence of a future life of rewards and punishments, and to promote
the disorganization of society, and the degradation of man to the level
of the brutes, living only under the laws of their brutal instincts.'
Such a theory is dishonoring to man and offensive to God."

When these discrepancies between a world-view governed by the
Christian's faith in Revelation and one governed by the theory of
evolution are once clearly understood, there will be no need to inquire,
why, on the one hand, enemies of the Bible in all ranks of life greeted
with such joyous acclaim the principle announced by Darwin and, why, on
the other hand, a chief purpose of Christian apologetics has become the
demonstration that Christianity _is justified even by reason_ in the
world-view which it inculcates, and that, on the other hand, _the
evolutionary hypothesis is contradicted by the facts of religion, of
history, and of natural science_.

CHAPTER TWO.
Unexplained Origins.

The evolutionary scheme of development is, by its originators and
defenders, accepted as a working hypothesis by which it is believed that
the origin of all forms which matter has taken, and of the activities of
living things, including man and human society, can be accounted for. It
is an attempt to answer the old question, suggested to the thinking mind
by a contemplation of nature: _Whence_ these things? It it a theory of
origins.

Now, a hypothesis, being "a theory, or supposition, provisionally
employed as an explanation of phenomena," must be verified before it can
be accepted as truth. Moreover, it can stand _even as a hypothesis_ only
if it meets the test of observation and experiment. It it can
demonstrate its adaption to explain all the facts, it may, until another
and better theory is propounded, be accepted as a theory. When it does
not explain the facts, it must be modified or abandoned.

Since the evolutionary hypothesis is employed as an explanation of
certain origins, a legitimate test of the theory is its adaptation to
explain these origins.