HUMAN ORGANIC EVOLUTION: FACT OR FANCY? 



comparative anatomy and physiology which is becoming 

 rapidly more important to anthropology. Also it would be 

 foolhardy to conclude that everything has been explained by 

 evolution. It may be recalled that the problems of how the 

 ancestors of man have become men are as far from solved as 

 they were one hundred years ago. It may also be recalled, 

 that any empirical scientific theory can only consider immediate 

 causes, not ultimate ones. Nevertheless, it would seem that 

 closer collaboration with philosophers and theologians is long 

 overdue. It is not sufficient for each to criticize the other, 

 which has led in the past to so many blind alleys and produced 

 much emotionalism. What is needed is active collaboration! 

 The recent New York Times news release from Rome 

 (February 28, 1959) of a human paleontologist's visit to the 

 Vatican, having an audience with the Pope, and the 

 attendance at his lecture by Eugene Cardinal Tisserant, may 

 signal a propitious moment for a new era of cooperation rather 

 than competition. Science in the pursuit of truth never chal- 

 lenges dogma, but error does, and error can only be eliminated 

 through greater efforts on the part of those dedicated to the 

 pursuit of truth! 





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