SELECTION 471 



The idea of a Divine Designer is outside the scientific 

 mode of formulation, to which it is an impiety not to be 

 loyal, but it is not outside the right of interpretation which 

 we claim as rational beings. It is a religious idea this of 

 the Divine Designer; the question is whether it is incon- 

 sistent with securely established scientific thinking. In our 

 judgment it is not inconsistent. 



The old form of the Argument from Design has no longer 

 more than a historical interest, but it may be reasonably 

 maintained, it seems to us, that the general idea behind the 

 argument remains. For if we free ourselves, as we think 

 we must, from a purely mechanical evolutionism, and recog- 

 nise organisms as genuine agents, we may see in the factors 

 of evolution the relatively, though, of course, not absolutely 

 self-sufficient, means of working out a purpose, or thought, or 

 idea which was involved by the Creator in the origination 

 of the first organisms, or wherever it seems clearest to begin. 

 We must not forget the problem of the origin of the condi- 

 tions that made Organic Evolution possible. That He the 

 Unmoved Prime Mover has made things to make themselves 

 and to go on perfecting themselves albeit they may be never 

 separable in thought from Him seems a finer kind of crea- 

 tion than Paley pictures. As Professor Pettigrew said in 

 his Design in Nature (p. 820), "Natural Selection may be 

 regarded merely as a process of so-called evolution by which 

 the Creator works and accomplishes His purpose. Indeed 

 the Creator, by conferring upon living matter in its simplest 

 and lowest forms the power of appropriating the elements 

 and building them up by endless elaboration and gradation 

 from a monad to a man, proves Himself to be an infinitely 

 more wonderful Designer than was ever dreamt of by even 

 the most ardent teleologist." This surely strikes the true note. 



