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

146 SCIENCE AND RELIGION.deterinining the value of rationalizing processes.The theory of " natural evolution,"implies evolution from something; it postulatesa beginning from which it takes procedure,and it exhausts itself in observations concerningsuch deviations as occur in the annalsof natural history. If, therefore, any of " thepartisans of natural ev~lut~ion," take up a positioninvolving denial of a rational acknowledgmentof the supernatural, they isolatetheinselves in so doing, leaving the tbeoryfree from responsibility as to their attitude,and taking upon themselves the logical necessityfor vindicating their position on groundswith which the theory of evolution itself hasno concern.Having thus vindicated the theory of naturalevolution from all share in the denial ofcreation, and having entered a protest uponpurely scientific grounds against the attemptto translate a scientific theory concerning alimited order of facts within the universe intoa ~netaphysical theory concerning the originof the universe, we are in a position to concentrateupon the theory itself as an attemptto provide a scientific explanation of the historyof living organism. And this is here