RELIGION AM) IIIK ORIGIN Ol III K 



is now aboul the geologic setting of tiic origin of life, about the 

 possibiHty of the processes postulated by biological research having 

 their place in the geologic history of the earth. 



RELIGION AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



This question is, of course, still very controversial. It touches the 

 roots of religious and ethical conceptions of every educated person. 

 Undoubtedly, the reason why Russia was a pioneer in the new wave 

 of interest in the origin of life on earth was not purely scientific. 

 Just as there has been resistance from religious circles against research 

 into the history of life, this same research was expressly furthered 

 by Marxist doctrine. Instead of a protection of popular church 

 teachings, the Russian attitude was, of course, prompted by the wish 

 to be able to attack such thinking. The goal was a completely 

 materialistic theory of life, not only of its evolution, but also of its 

 origin. Or, to put it perhaps a little too succinctly, to do away 

 altogether with creation. 



I have thought it necessary' to discuss this religious, antireligious 

 and ethical background of the problem of the origin of life on earth, 

 just because it so overwhelmingly exists in many minds, and also 

 because it is so difficult to abstract oneself from this background in 

 order to attain as high a measure of objectivity as possible. It has 

 been a pleasant experience for me, when reading the more recent 

 literature on the subject, to note the objective and academic quality 

 of all recent research. The literature seems entirely unbiassed by 

 either Marxist or religious dialectics. It reports on scientific experi- 

 ments and on theories, several of which still highly speculative, 

 founded along scientific lines of thought on these experiments, or on 

 geological or astronomical phenomena and the hypotheses derived 

 therefrom, in an extremely vigorous way, but based on science alone. 



ABOUT THIS BOOK 



The object of this book will be, therefore, to put forward in a 

 similarly objective way the facts and theories geology has to offer on 

 this question of the origin of life. Since it appeals not only to ge- 

 ologists, care will be taken to stress the basic assumptions which 

 underlie any presentation of the facts of the earth's history. The 



