298 Theories of Evolution and Creation 



such does not feel called upon to afiirm or to deny the truth, 

 beauty or worth of any system of religion whether it be 

 Confucianism or Congregationalism, Buddhism or Baptism, 

 orthodox Judaism or liberal Unitarianism. As a scientist, 

 he is concerned with checking alleged facts, with testing 

 hypotheses, with modifying hypotheses and theories into 

 harmony with new facts, with formulating new hypotheses 

 that lend themselves to experimental or other verification — 

 or refutation. 



Evolution as a way of thinking has undoubtedly modified 

 the God-concept for millions of people. But precisely the 

 same may be said of the teachings of every religion, of every 

 missionary. We excuse the latter on the ground that mis- 

 sionaries help people advance from a primitive or childish 

 conception of the deity to a more exalted one. We must 

 allow exactly the same credit to any agency that brings simi- 

 lar modifications. It may well be that some individuals have 

 become completely demoralized through their conversions 

 — both through the changes brought about by the teaching 

 of evolution and through the changes brought about by the 

 teaching of religious gospels. But even as the missionary 

 justifies himself by the greater good he has brought to thou- 

 sands who accept his way of salvation, the scientist would 

 point to the spiritual gains of vast numbers who have been 

 liberated from fear and superstition by scientific teaching. 



There is still widely prevalent the conception of a su- 

 preme power as a person who manifests his superiority by 

 interfering from time to time with the orderly processes 

 of nature, whether to show his pleasure or anger, whether 

 to please those whom he likes or to penalize others who have 

 not paid him a full measure of homage — a supreme power 

 in other words, who behaves on occasions like a rather im- 

 mature human being. In so far as scientific knowledge has 

 influenced theological speculation, it has served to make the 

 deity less concrete, less personal, less constrained by the pet- 

 tiness and jealousies and crudities of ordinary human beings. 

 Science has done this by extending the borders of God's uni- 



