THE EPIC OF EVOLUTION 495 



was the method employed. It is illogical and impious to postulate 

 the Creator as a bungling and slipshod workman. 



In spite of controversial echoes from the past, there is nothing 

 alarming or unsettling in the concept of biological evolution. There 

 is no more conflict between it and religious faith than there is in 

 Galileo's demonstration, which so worried his contemporaries, that 

 the earth moves around the sun. The religious person and the 

 evolutionist both approach the citadel of truth with equal reverence, 

 but from somewhat different directions. There is nothing to prevent 

 their harmonious meeting within the portals. 



While the facts of evolution are comparatively plain, the factors 

 that determine how it came about are still uncertain and debatable. 

 Darwin, in The Origin of Species, not only marshaled in thorough- 

 going and masterly fashion the facts in support of evolution, but 

 he also went further and advanced his "Theory of Natural Selection," 

 to be considered in a later section, in the attempt to explain how 

 evolution has occurred. A consideration of the facts of evolution 

 calls for evidences which are derived from many sources. Just as 

 "all roads lead to Rome," so various lines of evidence about to be 

 presented converge to establish the general truth of organic evolution. 



The Nature of Scientific Evidence 



What is evidence to one person may not be to another. The 

 yokel at the circus who exclaimed, "There ain't no such beast," 

 when he saw a giraffe for the first time, could not easily accept the 

 evidence of his own eyes. It would be futile to try to convince a 

 cat that a picture of a mouse, however well done, really represents 

 a live mouse. The cat lacks experience in judging pictures and is 

 unable to gain such experience, so that the idea that a picture has 

 anything whatever to do with a real mouse is beyond the cat's com- 

 prehension. 



Sufficient intelligence, a background of experience, and an open 

 mind are essentials in understanding what any evidence means. 

 The more technical the matter presented, the greater the intelligence 

 and experience required to evaluate it. Moreover, since it is quite 

 out of the question to acquire at first hand all the knowledge and 

 experience of which we make use, it is necessary many times to 

 accept the judgment of others who are experts in fields more or less 

 unfamiliar to us. Distinguishing marks of a truly educated man 

 are not the only possession of a considerable store of first hand 



