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

134 SCIENCE AND RELIGION.This is postulated as characteristic of all organizedexistence; and it is implied, that thispower of adaptability multiplies in a degreeapproximating to the measure of complexitybelonging to the organism. The inhemntcapacity for deviation is thus much lessin the mollusk than in the bird; and in thebird much less than in the quadruped.Thus the development process which must,according to this view, have been exceedinglyslow in the earlier stages, must havebeen greatly accelerated when more complexorganisms had come into existence, and allthe advantages accrued from greater diversity of materials. Such is a brief outline ofthe theory; and looked at simply as a theory,there is a manifest attraction in the boldnessof the conception, and the wide sweep ofthe generalization which it includes. Takenmerely as an intellectual representation settingforth a conceivable order of things inthe universe, it has a great deal to commandattention and awaken interest. It is, indeed,a novelty in the history of scientific thought,and as such at variance with previous conceptions,both scientific and lion - scientific.But it is no more at variance with religious