The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

LIFE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT. 121harmony. We must here therefore be considerablyinvolved in questions affecting theorieswhich have gained wide favor in scientific circles,as well as with clearly recorded and certainresults. Some general questions, such asthat affecting the classification of animals,must be regarded as peculiarly scientific.Whether the classificgtion of Linnseus, or ofCuvier, or some other more recently suggested,is to be preferred, is a matter which does nothere concern us. But a theory of the originof species must be considered, because it isnot purely scientific, but brings science intodirect relation with common thought as tothe order of the universe, and may thereforestand related to religious thought.Immediately on directing attention to organizedexistence,-to LIFE in any form,-weencounter a new problem, namely the relationof the organized to the unorganized.How is the appearance of this higher orderof existence to be. accounted for ? Can wefind in the nature of matter, and in the mechanicaland chemical laws influencing its positionand combination, any explanation ofthe appearance of life in the world? Ormust we regard life as a new and higher fact,