296 Theories of Evolution and Creation 



Canon Henri de Dorlodot, at Louvain, thus explains 

 how scientific evolutionism may be harmonized with the 

 doctrine of creation. He writes: 



" I. The primary origin of living beings is the result of a special in- 

 fluence on the part of the Creator, Who infuses life into one or a few 

 elementary organisms. 



" 2. These organisms, by evolving in the course of ages, have given 

 rise to all the organic species which exist at the present time, as well as 

 these which have come down to us in the fossil state." 



These views of the general fact of organic evolution are 

 in every essential identical with those of the modern scien- 

 tist. Indeed it has become quite fashionable for scientists 

 to repeat the formula, " Religion tells us about creation; 

 science tells us how creation was accomplished." Of course 

 religion does nothing of the kind: it attempts to find for 

 man a way of life that will yield an optimum of spiritual 

 values. And of course science does not tell us how creation 

 was accomplished: it tells us only what it can infer from the 

 present facts as to probable events of the past. At any rate, 

 the only conflict between creationism and evolutionism that 

 does not confuse a thousand irrelevancies arises at one or 

 another of two points: 



(i) The scientist may go out of his way to deal with 

 philosophical questions of origins and come into conflict 

 with a special theological theory of origins. Or, 



(2) the theologian may insist that the scientist accept 

 his version of creation, as an ultimate fact or as a basis for 

 interpretation. 



Creator versus Evolution 



We may thus see that the evolutionary point of view 

 has been acceptable to theologians who think definitely in 

 terms of a personal God and an act of creation. The the- 

 ologian is free to postulate creations according to a great 

 variety of plans. The scientist is compelled to accept the 



