WHAT OF IT? AN OPEN LETTER TO STUDENTS 511 



entiation I am recommending to you. They failed to recognize that the 

 Bible is a book of religion but not a book of science. 



This conflict over whether or not the earth revolves seems remote and 

 unreal to us today (though there is at least one religious sect in the United 

 States which still maintains that the Bible must be regarded as scientific 

 authority on this point). For the most part the church long ago adjusted 

 itself to the new findings of science concerning the physical universe and 

 has found essential religion but little afi'ected by the adjustment. 



This point brings us to evolution — a relative newcomer in the history of 

 science, so far as general attention is concerned, at least. Most people had 

 thought little about the subject before 1859, when Darwin published his 

 Origin of Species. Then the storm broke all over again! Religious leaders 

 who had become entirely reconciled to the Copernican astronomy, despite 

 its contradiction of Scripture, maintained that the stories of creation in 

 Genesis must be accepted as literal history. What peculiar inconsistency 

 they showed in recognizing that the Bible is not a scientific book in matters 

 of astronomy and yet refusing to recognize that the Bible is not a scientific 

 book in matters of biology! The conflict during the latter part of the nine- 

 teenth century was bitter and is not yet completely dead. Yet again, for the 

 most part religious leaders are recognizing the Bible for what it is, a book 

 of religion, but not a book of science (not even of biology). And again, 

 essential religion is but little afTected by the adjustment. 



Since many people still maintain that they regard the creation stories in 

 Genesis as literal history, however, we may be interested to look at them a 

 little. Perhaps you are surprised that I write of them in the plural: the crea- 

 tion "stories.'' Most people do not realize that the early chapters of Genesis 

 contain two such stories and that they differ greatly. This situation arose 

 from the fact mentioned earlier that the Bible had many authors, writ- 

 ing at different times, and that these varied writings were assembled to- 

 gether without indication of the sources of the various portions and with- 

 out much attempt to remove inconsistencies and contradictions. By dint of 

 painstaking sleuthing Biblical scholars have done much to unscramble the 

 various portions. 



The Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) is "a composite pro- 

 duction, made out of sources old and new, which have been blended, 

 brought up to date, and supplemented" (Moffatt). One of the sources was 

 the Judahite or "J" narrative written as the religious book of the kingdom 

 of Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel also had its narrative, usually 

 called the "E" narrative. When the kingdoms were subsequently united 



