CREATION BY EVOLUTION 



The naturalist does not require such evidence of evolution 

 as that described above. If future enquiries should prove that 

 it and similar evidence are based on insufficient material and 

 are hence illusory his faith in evolution would remain 

 unshaken. Why is this? Because during the whole of his 

 life's work he is always meeting with facts which, on the 

 theory of evolution, receive a clear and fascinating interpre- 

 tation, but which without it are meaningless. Accept evolu- 

 tion and they fit into their place in the scheme of things; 

 reject it and they are isolated and devoid of interest. An 

 instance or two will make this clear. 



The female of the common vapourer moth has lost the 

 power of flight. The brown male, which has a white spot 

 on each forewing, flies actively by day and may be seen dash- 

 ing through the streets and squares of London seeking the 

 female where she sits quietly on the outside of the cocoon 

 from which she emerged. Later on she will lay her eggs on 

 this cocoon and die without leaving it. The little caterpillars 

 that are hatched out eat many kinds of plants and are in no 

 danger of starvation, for a short journey will bring them to 

 food. Therefore the female does not require wings in order 

 to seek the plant that provides food for her offspring and 

 lay eggs on it, and she does not have to seek her mate. All 

 the seeking is done by him. He will even enter a house and 

 creep under a door to enter a room where a freshly emerged 

 female is being kept in a box. Now the evolutionist knows 

 that this nearly wingless female is descended from ancestors 

 that possessed wings like other moths and that her rudi- 

 mentary wings have become what they are by gradual 

 degeneration. Why are the rudiments there.^ No theory 

 except evolution can give a reasonable answer. To believe 

 that by an arbitrary act of creation one moth was given 

 useful and another useless wings is a childish creed — an 



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