290 Theories of Evolution and Creation 



The general theory of the transformation of species has 

 nevertheless passed beyond a philosophical speculation and 

 is accepted by practically all biologists and paleontologists 

 as a historical fact. The agreement namely is upon the 

 proposition that species have changed in the past and do 

 change today. 



Spontaneous Generation 



Objection has been made to the general doctrine of evo- 

 lution that by avoiding the question of the origin of life it 

 admits the doctrine of spontaneous generation. This is 

 perfectly true. Curiously enough, however, while the spon- 

 taneous generation of living matter in the ordinary under- 

 standing of this expression is rejected by the scientists, it is 

 quite commonly believed by large numbers of people, in- 

 cluding a large proportion of those who oppose evolution. 

 And was directly accepted by Cuvier himself! 



Even those, however, who accept the general theory of 

 organic evolution as a historical fact are not agreed on the 

 validity of any of the special theories which attempt to ex- 

 plain the causes of change. 



Confusion of General and Special Theories 



There has accordingly appeared a type of criticism of the 

 general evolution theory which hardly deserves serious con- 

 sideration except that it is frequently employed to the dis- 

 comfiture of reasonably intelligent people when the latter 

 are off their guard. This is the device of setting up criti- 

 cisms uttered by various scientists upon the theories of 

 others, gently leading on to the conclusion that all the 

 quoted scientists repudiate evolution. It is essentially a con- 

 fusion between the general doctrine of transformation with 

 some specific theory to explain the process. The failure of 

 any or all of the latter is made to " prove " the untenability 

 of the former. The argument may be formulated something 

 like this: ** The ways of evolution pass all understanding. 



