LECTURES IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 



knowledge of good and evil is gained only through the experi- 

 ence of freedom. A cat, a mouse, a bird, or an insect meets with 

 no such problems. Their actions are forced upon them by their 

 genes and by their environments, including their previous ex- 

 periences. All this is much more difficult and complicated in 

 man. Freedom is an awesome gift. Man's reactions to freedom 

 are contradictory and conflicting. He strives for freedom, and 

 may even be ready to pay for it with his life. And yet, he may 

 not only sacrifice his freedom for apparently trivial gains, but 

 often enjoys the absence of freedom. The most extreme slavery 

 is one that makes the slave unaware of his bondage. 



7. The Evolving Universe 



Darwin did, in a sense, carry to completion the work of 

 Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. After Darwin, the image of 

 the universe as an immense clockwork includes not only the 

 inanimate nature but the world of life and of man as well. But 

 a ray of hope has become visible in the frightening depths of 

 Pascal's infinite spaces. Darwin and his successors altered the 

 Newtonian image of the universe in quite an important respect. 

 They showed that the universe was not always as it is today; 

 that it has changed greatly with time, albeit gradually and 

 slowly; that it has had a history. Moreover, and this is most 

 important of all, the universe is a going concern capable of 

 further change; it is evolving. 



The sublimely lawful and rational universe of Newton was 

 created once and for all, beautifully finished, in fact too perfect 

 to admit change, either advancement or deterioration. Newton 

 could not suppose the universe to be very old, since he did not 

 refute Bishop Usher's calculation, which placed the Creation in 

 the year 4004 B.C. Neither could Newton, who was a diligent 

 student and commentator of the Book of Revelation, believe 

 that the universe would have much of a chance to evolve in the 

 future. The universe of the evolutionists is quite different from 

 Newton's; it is not necessarily eternal, but in any case very old, 

 some five billion years according to recent estimates. There is 

 no compelling reason known why it coidd not endure infinitely 

 into the future. 



Evolutionism did not restore man to the place at the center 



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