, Let
the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, etc. And _the earth
brought forth_ grass and herb," etc. "And God said, Let _the earth bring
forth the living creature_." Even the creation of man is thus related: "And
the Lord God _formed_ man of the dust of the ground." Certainly the forming
presupposes a matter out of which man is formed. And, on the other hand,
where the Bible speaks of single beings in the kingdoms long before created
and perfected, of the individual man who is originated by generation and
birth, of single plants and animals--in general, of single processes and
phenomena in the world long before perfected, of wind and waves, of rain
and flames, which altogether have their natural causes of origin--it speaks
of them all precisely in the same way as when describing their first
creation as works of God. The expressions "create, make, form, cause to
appear," are applied to the single individuals of the kingdoms long before
created, precisely in the same way as they are to the first origin of the
first individuals of those kingdoms.

Thus, by the full freedom which religious interest gives to scientific
investigation, we are well prepared to treat with entire impartiality the
question as to the position of each of the Darwinian theories in reference
to theism. {259}

Sec. 2. _The Descent Theory and Theism._

In the first part of our investigation, we found that the idea of the
origin of the species, especially of the higher organized species, through
descent from the next related lower ones, has a high degree of probability,
although it is still not proven in a strictly scientific sense, and
although especially the supposition of an often-separated primitive
generation of single types is not excluded by that idea, and we can hardly
suppose that the main types of the animal kingdom are developed out of one
another. Now we are far from asking of _religion_ to decide for itself in
favor of the one or the other mode of conception, or to place its influence
in the one or the other balance-scale of scientific investigations. It
leaves the answering of these questions exclusively to natural science,
knowing beforehand that it will be able to come to an understanding with
the one as well as with the other result of its investigations. But we
confess frankly that it is incomparably _easier_ for us to bring the origin
of the higher groups of organisms in accord with a theistic and
teleological view of