Nature of Evolutionary Progress 63 



sands of diverse and incompatible goals. The progress 

 of life in one direction destroys progress made in 

 other directions. In a word, every indication that 

 might be sought of a guidance of life toward a pre- 

 existing goal is lacking. All the indications are that 

 life is indeed upon a new adventure, and that the 

 highest conditions which biological life reaches in its 

 progress upward are indeed the highest that have 

 been reached. Whether that highest stage has been 

 reached in the evolution that has occurred upon this 

 particular planet or in that which has occurred upon 

 some other planet, of course we cannot know. But 

 there is no evidence that the stages of life reached in 

 some other star influence the direction of progress 

 here. 



The conviction of the existence of God, in any such 

 meaning as I have just indicated, has not arisen 

 through the study of the detailed facts of science. In 

 part, it is a reflection of wishes, the outgrowth of a 

 desire for an all-wise, all-powerful protector and 

 father. In the practice of science, the tendency to 

 base convictions upon Welshes is one of the chief errors 

 to be avoided : it does not lead to verifiable truth ; on 

 the contrary, it leads to demonstrable errors. The 

 reaching of conclusions through the influence of 

 wishes is most strongly opposed to the spirit of 

 science; and the conclusions so reached can lay no 

 claim to support by science. 



Aside from the influence of wishes, the favored 

 argument for the existence of God, in the sense I have 

 suggested, is the argument from contrivance. The 



