CREATION BY EVOLUTION 



But the fact of biological progress does show that our 

 ideals and efforts, our whole scheme of values, are not merely 

 isolated flames burning in the darkness of a universe which 

 is neutral or hostile to the effects of its working. It shows, 

 at least as regards the course of events for the several thou- 

 sand million years during which life has existed on this 

 planet, that the cosmic forces have worked in such a way 

 as to produce a movement that has been not only the most 

 successful movement in evolution but that also chimes in 

 with our sense of values and our Idea of the direction In 

 which we ourselves desire to move. 



As a result of the working of the forces of Evolution, man 

 has now become the trustee of the evolutionary process — in 

 other words, of this world's future. It is sometimes asserted 

 that pre-human evolution is purposeful. This, however, is 

 a mistake. As Darwin once and for all pointed out, the 

 adaptation of structure to function, of an animal's means 

 to the requirements of its life, not only require no other 

 purpose at all than the purposes of the contending animals 

 but can be explained only as the result of the automatic 

 working of natural forces, such as heredity, variation, and 

 natural selection; and the same statement is true if we con- 

 sider the general movement and progress of life's evolution 

 as opposed to the particular evolution of this or that species. 

 These natural forces are In the same category as those which 

 cause chemical combinations, make the chick grow in the egg, 

 or cause our digestive juices to be secreted; but purpose is 

 something that can be defined only psychologically — ^mean- 

 ing that a definite end is consciously held in view. 



This of course is not to say that there may not be purpose 

 in the background, behind all those apparently blind forces. 

 But we have no means whatever of knowing whether that 

 is so or not; and it Is the first duty of anyone who wishes 



[338} 



