54 evolution: the ages and tomorrow 



Progress, however, is not to be claimed as common to all 

 manifestations of life. In the details of the record of the 

 rocks and in the modern world there are endless examples of 

 retrogression and degeneracy. On the basis of creation by 

 divine guidance these innumerable cases of the reverse of 

 progress are not explainable; but, if we keep in mind the 

 nature of the mechanics of evolution, random mutation 

 oriented by blind environmental factors, we see the picture 

 differently. These are the trial-and-error failures that nature 

 suffers in the nonanthropomorphic seeking for mind-in- 

 matter expression. 



Nor can progress be said to continue indefinitely in any 

 one general line of evolution. If understanding is the real 

 criterion, then only man, at present, has been favored by a 

 continuous progression; all or most other forms of life 

 would seem to have already entered inescapable blind al- 

 leys. The headless echinoderms, whose ancestral line may 

 have long since ceased to progress, are probably much too 

 fixed in their germinal characteristics to adapt to any but 

 the conditions in which they now find themselves. The 

 molluscs are defective in their general organization, and one 

 would not expect higher kinds of life to evolve in the future 

 from these creatures. Insects and most other arthropods are 

 eliminated by being too limited in size and too specialized. 



Perhaps some generalized intermediate forms in the line 

 from lower worms to arthropods are in a position to evolve 

 progressively. Man may have come from such a line, but it 

 was a very long time ago. Of the vertebrates, only the 

 warm-blooded forms would seem to have an immediate 

 chance of quickly reaching higher levels, since they have 

 the necessary control over the environment. Birds, how- 

 ever, have already eliminated themselves by adaptation to 

 flight which necessitated reduction of brain-weight along 

 with the rest of the body and has led to overspecialization. 

 They are at the end of their evolution. Man has been better 

 off in solving the problem of flight intellectually instead of 



