GEOLOGISTS AND THE ORIGEST OF LIFE 6 



In comparison, geological data about the origin of life, which 

 reaches even farther back in time, are scanty in the extreme. The 

 whys and wherefores will be set forth in this book, but the fact 

 remains that there are incomparably more data about the later evolu- 

 tion of life on earth than about its earliest period. 



Moreover, in this particular case the resistance must be recalled 

 which research into the history of life on earth in the geological past 

 has encountered from churchpeople. Views on the history of life on 

 earth, be it the origin through natural causes or "only" its further 

 natural evolution, have been, and are still in some cases, an anathema 

 to many of the stricter church members, clergy and laity alike. Geolo- 

 gists, in tiying to overcome this dogmatic barrier against their 

 legitimate scientific research, of course concentrated on their strongest 

 case; that is, on the evolution of life during the last half billion years. 



In this same vein, it so happened that geologists became aware of 

 the fact that often natural evolution is more easily reconciled with 

 popular versions of church dogma when in conjunction with some 

 nebulous beginning, some generatio spontanea, then when coupled 

 with views on natural processes governing all life, including its 

 origin. Creation, in the views first indicated, is separate from natural 

 evolution. During discussions following lectures on the evolution of 

 life on earth, I often got the impression that in this way creation 

 can be accepted on the faith of the church; natural evolution on the 

 faith of the paleontological record. Even here, the difficulties have 

 been great. Moreover, they showed a marked variation with the kind 

 of evolution studied. Just as in many schools sexual problems may 

 be taught as long as one only deals with poppies and bees, and 

 perhaps even with the horse, whilst this subject is taboo with monkeys 

 and man, evolutionary viewpoints encountered more resistance the 

 nearer to man the examples were chosen. I knovv^ of a world-famous 

 paleontologist, who in public addresses still does not want any 

 discussion after his talk when he speaks on the origin of man, but is 

 quite willing to do so when he has spoken about horses or ammonites. 



So on the one hand we geologists have the possibility of studying 

 the evolution of life on earth, of paleontological research, with a 

 wealth of factual data. Although the gaps in the paleontological 

 records are still so large that anyone with a bias can still make a 

 case against natural evolution, the development of paleontological 



