,14 The Common Sense of the Evolution Question 



these things happen (since the statements apply to the events 

 of milhons of years) , it can be shown that both propositions 

 are supported by facts. These propositions are not self- 

 evident. They raise questions in the minds of every thought- 

 ful person. For example, what is there to show that the 

 living kinds or species of plants and animals have not always 

 been the same as those we find today? How can we tell the 

 " relationship " between living things of today and those of 

 former times? If all life comes from life, where and how 

 did life originate? How did changes or departures from 

 ancestral types come about? If this process has been going 

 on, what does it lead to? These are all common-sense ques- 

 tions, and there are many others. 



Obviously such questions cannot be answered by argu- 

 ment. Some of them at least can be answered satisfactorily 

 only by facts — facts in regard to which there can be no 

 argument. If it is true that all living things have descended 

 from remote ancestors, with more or less modification in the 

 course of time, we ought to be able to find direct and un- 

 mistakable evidence, even if we never find out how the 

 changes are brought about, how the series started, or what 

 it is leading to. 



As to the questions of the origin of life and the ultimate 

 destiny of man or life in general, science has nothing to say. 

 The individual scientist, in common with other human be- 

 ings, may have his hopes and fears and beliefs. In common 

 with other more or less intellectual beings he may speculate 

 all he likes. His method as scientist, however, does not per- 

 mit him to deal with these questions. The reason for this 

 is that he knows no way of bringing the material under di- 

 rect observation, or of subjecting it to experimental condi- 

 tions. This is not to say that we have reached the limit of 

 the knowable. On the contrary, the problem of the " origin 

 of life " is being constantly attacked by experimental meth- 

 ods and it is unsafe to predict what facts may be found. The 

 distinction merely means that the scientist as such is not 

 primarily concerned with ultimate questions of whence or 



