WG-21-22. THE ERROR OF THE EVOLUTIONIST
22. THE ERROR OF THE EVOLUTIONIST
IT is very interesting to note how Mr. Spencer uses his data, and how he joins the illustrations taken by him from human affairs to those taken from other spheres. When he speaks of evolution in human society, whether the development of nations, or of industries, or of arts, or fashions, or ecclesiastical systems, his facts are drawn either from history or from matters of everyday observation. Having verified his proposition by apt and copious illustrations drawn from these sources, the unwary reader is apt not to notice that, when our philosopher goes beyond the sphere of human affairs, he has not a single verified fact to adduce—everything is either conjecture or assumption. For example, he speaks of the Sidereal System as having evolved from a nebulous state to its present condition; of the evolution of the earth from a mass of molten matter to its present condition; of the evolution of living organisms from primordial protoplasm to the present highly differ- 121entiated organisms, including man. In all this there is not one fact, not a scintilla of evidence, to warrant the assumptions presented. On the contrary, and as shown in the first part of this article, all these assumptions utterly fail of support; and the evidence to the contrary puts them wholly out of court.
Having arrived at Man, the character of the illustrations given by Mr. Spencer changes at once, from fiction and fancy, to undeniable fact, showing, what we affirm to be the case, that up to the appearance of man upon the earth, about six thousand years ago (there is absolutely no evidence for an earlier date), evolution had no part at all in fashioning the earth or the creatures in and upon it; and neither since that time has evolution had any part in fashioning the earth or its inhabitants; but, on the other hand, that in all which man has set himself to do and accomplish in self-will, or in accordance with the will of another, not that of God Himself, evolution has been the invariable and universal method of procedure. Evolution is undeniably the order of this present world wherein evil is found (for evil, like evolution, is not found outside of man’s world), and there is no escape from it for sinful man except by death. Therefore Christ “gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Gal 1:4).