CHAPTER XLII 



THE RELATION OF EVOLUTION TO MATERIALISM 1 



Joseph Le Conte 



It is seen in the sketch given in the previous chapter that, after 

 every struggle between theology and science, there has been a read- 

 justment of some beliefs, a giving up of some notions which really had 

 nothing to do with religion in a proper sense, but which had become 

 so associated with religious belief as to be confounded with the latter — 

 a giving up of some line of defense which ought never to have been 

 held because not within the rightful domain of theology at all. Until 

 the present the whole difficulty has been the result of misconception, 

 and Christianity has emerged from every struggle only strengthened 

 and purified, by casting off an obstructing shell which hindered its 

 growth. But the present struggle seems to many an entirely different 

 and far more serious matter. To many it seems no longer a struggle 

 of theology, but of essential religion itself — a deadly life-and-death 

 struggle between religion and materialism. To many, both skeptics 

 and Christians, evolution seems to be synonymous with blank mate- 

 rialism, and therefore cuts up by the roots every form of religion by 

 denying the existence of God and the fact of immortality. That the 

 enemies of religion, if there be any such, should assume and insist on 

 this identity, and thus carry over the whole accumulated evidence of 

 evolution as a demonstration of materialism, although wholly unwar- 

 ranted, is not so surprising; but what shall we say of the incredible 

 folly of her friends in admitting the same identity ! 



A little reflection will explain this. There can be no doubt that 

 there is at present a strong and to many an overwhelming tend- 

 ency toward materialism. The amazing achievements of modern 

 science; the absorption of intellectual energy in the investigation of 

 external nature and the laws of matter have created a current in that 

 direction so strong that of those who feel its influence — of those who 

 do not stay at home, shut up in their creeds, but walk abroad in the 

 light of modern thought — it sweeps away and bears on its bosom all 



1 From J. Le Conte, Evolution (copyright 1888). Used by special permission 

 of the publishers, D. Appleton & Company. 



547 



