244 WHAT 18 LIFE 



suits. The current general theory of descent is not 

 compatible with the very specific, rigid, and exacting 

 laws of atomic physics. 



And thus it comes about that the finding of the 

 other, earlier, more general sciences concerning man's 

 descent is reversed : The new verdict is that it would 

 seem almost certain that the strain which resulted 

 in "man" was a separate one from the beginning. 

 It is extremely improbable that there should have 

 developed a common ancestor from which (as 

 many think, at a late date) both man and the apes 

 evolved; and the idea that apes degenerated from 

 an ancestral stock from which man evolved, is pure 

 fancy. 



The reasons for rejecting the current doctrine of 

 man's descent are: 



1. The same reasons which apply to the general 

 theory of descent; and 



2. Specific reasons which arise from a comparison 

 of man and ape. 



My theory of the origin of species, and of the cause 

 of the successive appearance of higher and higher forms 

 of life on the earth during geologic time, then, is dia- 

 metrically opposed to the current theory of descent, which 

 teaches that all higher organisms now existing have 

 descended through an unbroken line, and have advanced 

 by insensible gradations or sudden mutations from the 



