514 INTRODUCTION TO EVOLUTION 



a Creator. But that time is certainly far removed from the present. Until it 

 arrives science can neither prove that there is a Creator nor prove that 

 there is not a Creator. 



If your question had been: "Do not many scientists believe that there is 

 no Creator?" I should have answered, "Yes." But that is quite another 

 matter from science's proving that there is no Creator. Scientists, like other 

 fallible human beings, believe many things not proved by science. If we 

 took a poll of bankers or bakers, machinists or farmers we should find that 

 many of them do not believe in a Creator either. What we believe to be 

 true is determined by numerous factors, conscious and subconscious, 

 many of which have nothing to do with scientific demonstration. This state- 

 ment is as true of scientists as it is of other people. Scientists are not a race 

 apart; they had impressionable childhoods, molded by varying influences, 

 and lead private lives, too. Accordingly, in matters of belief they are much 

 like other people. Many of them believe in a Creator; many of them do 

 not. But if they are thoughtful and honest they readily recognize that their 

 belief one way or the other is not equivalent to scientific demonstration. 



All right, the question is in your mind; why not ask it? How about me, 

 do I believe in a Creator? As I mentioned eadier, this letter is intended to 

 give you an idea of how things look to me, so the question is not out of 

 order and I shall answer frankly, "Yes, I do." Then, of course, you want to 

 know, "Why?" Probably it would be impossible for me to answer that 

 question fully even if space permitted. Certainly a powerful influence in 

 the direction of belief in God was exerted by the deeply religious home in 

 which I grew up. Suppose we change the question sHghtly and ask: 

 "Granted that science cannot prove either that there is or that there is not a 

 Creator, has my study of science contributed in any way to belief in a 

 Creator?" Again let me warn you that my answer is a purely personal 

 one and that many persons, some of them more profound than myself, 

 will consider it totally inadequate. But after all, this is my letter! The more 

 I study science the more I am impressed with the thought that this world 

 and universe have a definite design — and a design suggests a designer. 

 It may be possible to have design without a designer, a picture without an 

 artist, but my mind is unable to conceive of such a situation. 



Evidences of design are everywhere about us; the forces producing the 

 design are the so-called "laws of nature," many of which science has dis- 

 closed to us, many of which still await discovery. The greatest aspect of de- 

 sign visible to us is in the ordered movement of the stars and planets in 

 this solar system, and in other solar systems extending on and on through 

 space — a design almost incomprehensibly large. At the other extreme we 



