EVOLUTION— ITS MEANING 



progressive discoveries of truth have occasioned is not, how^ 

 ever, strictly speaking, a 'Varfare of religion and science." 

 It is the inevitable struggle between tradition and knowl- 

 edge, between conventional beliefs and new views demanded 

 by new evidence. This conflict exists, not alone in church 

 and state, but in the mind of every growing and forward- 

 looking man. 



The infinite expanse of the "unfathomed universe," its 

 development through countless periods of time, the bound- 

 less range of its changes and the rational order that pervades 

 it, all seem to demand an infinite intelligence behind its 

 manifestations. That intelligence we cannot define, but of 

 this we feel sure — it centers in no mere tribal god, nor one 

 busy, man-fashion, with schemes and plans. Nor can it be 

 one obsessed by human passions or jealousies. To thought- 

 ful minds it becomes increasingly evident that the majestic 

 mechanism of the universe and the perfect fitting of life 

 to the earth on which it rests are no chance products of 

 "fortuitous clashing of atoms." We know no cosmic results 

 brought about by accident, happy or unhappy. It has been 

 said that the attributes of humanity are merely traits of 

 "complex carbon compounds." Even if true, this statement 

 makes the facts no simpler, but far more complicated, by 

 throwing on chemical reactions the brunt of the problems 

 of life. So far as we can see, there is no * chaos" in the 

 universe, nor was there ever any. 



In the title of this symposium the word "creation" must 

 be taken in its broadest sense as the aggregation of the 

 intelligence and the energies which enter into the develop- 

 ment of the Universe. Is not "creation by evolution" a far 

 more exalted conception than any creation by fiat imagined 

 of old? And does it not reveal a Godhead infinitely worthy 

 of obedience and adoration.^ 



