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M 



Chapter 9 



Theories of Evolution and Creation 



AN'S experience upon the earth places before him 

 constantly a great variety of practical problems. 

 The solution of these must in many cases be found 

 immediately in the form of suitable action. Failure to act 

 suitably means privation, suffering, or even death. In this 

 respect the human organism in a hypothetical " state of 

 nature " is exactly like other living things. But man as we 

 know him is tempted by his experience to formulate for 

 himself problems that do not demand immediate solution 

 and that permit the unrestrained play of the imagination. 



In addition to all his other traits, man is a speculative 

 mind. Among the earliest records of his thinking are evi- 

 dences of his speculative attempts to solve the problems 

 which Darwin summarized in his epoch-making book, The 

 Origin of Species. Man has asked not only regarding him- 

 self, and regarding the things about him, Whence? and 

 Whither? The history of thought shows three rather clearly 

 defined steps. Every set of important problems has been 

 approached at first through vague wonder and speculation. 

 With the accumulation of knowledge, especially on prob- 

 lems dealing with concrete matters, there comes a time when 

 resort to observable facts characterizes the search for an- 

 swers. Observation and inference constitute the beginnings 

 of science. Eventually, the systematic pursuit of knowledge 

 leads to the method of experimentation. The progress from 

 speculation to experiment is always slow, but has proceeded 

 much more rapidly in some lines of thought than in others. 

 The problem presented by organic structures and processes 

 has arrived only recently at the third stage. 



