xiv Introduction 



controversy over this truth of nature would never have 

 arisen." The assimilation of the notion of special creation 

 as a definite act at a definite point in time was furthered by 

 the graphic and dramatic embodiment of this conception in 

 Milton's " Paradise Lost." To this day, most people who have 

 absorbed something of the verbal and literary culture of 

 recent centuries are unable to distinguish the Miltonian 

 poetry from the Mosaic symbolism, and either of these from 

 elementary facts of geography and astronomy. 



Most people in our times have been more or less thor- 

 oughly indoctrinated by their parents and by their religious 

 teachers with the idea of special creation. The doctrine of 

 evolution has been very commonly considered as conflicting 

 with ** religious " teaching. There is, however, no necessary 

 conflict between such a doctrine and religion. This we may 

 infer from the fact that men and women who are sincerely 

 devoted adherents of many diverse denominations and sects 

 have accepted whole-heartedly the evolutionary point of 

 view. Many professional religious leaders are fond of de- 

 claring that religion is not in conflict with " true science," 

 but must reject the " false science " of evolution. One is 

 tempted to say that evolution is derived from the study of 

 the actual world and cannot therefore be in conflict with 

 " true religion," but must reject the " false religion " which 

 refuses to face this world of actuality. But obviously this 

 does not lead us anywhere. 



We already know that every living being comes from 

 parents of the same " kind," and produces offspring of the 

 same kind. The transmutation of species, however, implies 

 that one kind of being produces not according to its kind: 

 that violates our common experience. It asks us to think that 

 the offspring of given parents are the same and yet not the 

 same: that violates common sense. 



Difficulties of a different kind have been introduced by 

 those who espoused, with an enthusiasm approaching religious 

 fervor, the new ideas about the descent of species from 

 different ancestors. These promoted the idea of " evolu- 



