PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



far beyond the realm of experimentally established facts. It 

 depends, therefore, more or less on his belief in the reliability 

 of this extrapolation whether a biologist thinks that macro- 

 evolution is scientifically explained or not. 



The discussions about the causes of evolution, however, are 

 not wholly of a scientific nature, but partly also inspired by 

 different philosophical positions. Especially in the nineteenth 

 century it seemed as if a scientist who did not believe in 

 creation was forced to believe in evolution. On the rebound. 

 Christian philosophers thought that rejection of evolution was 

 imposed by Christian dogma. This is the more amazing 

 because till modern times Christian tradition had always 

 believed in spontaneous generation, i.e., some kinds of animals 

 were thought to be generated immediately from inanimate 

 matter. Neither St. Augustine, nor St. Thomas, to mention 

 only these two great founders of Christian thought, had seen 

 any contradiction between the existence of spontaneous genera- 

 tion and the creation of nature by God. It is really one of the 

 greatest mysteries of the history of thought that when in the 

 nineteenth century the idea of evolution became generally 

 accepted in the scientific world, many Christian thinkers 

 thought that in the name of sound philosophy this idea had 

 to be rejected. They even used the scientific arguments against 

 spontaneous generation as evidence for their belief in creation! 

 And apparently they had a strong case. After a long battle 

 lasting several centuries, it became evident in the same nine- 

 teenth century which accepted evolution that spontaneous 

 generation had to be rejected on scientific grounds. Thus we 

 are confronted with the peculiar situation that it looked as if 

 the advocates of evolution postulated abiogenesis on no other 

 ground than that they wanted to avoid the idea of creation. 

 Whereas there was some evidence for evolution within the 

 realm of living nature, there was no evidence at all for 

 abiogenesis. All the available evidence pointed in another 

 direction. However, without abiogenesis there seemed no way 

 out; the explanation of the first appearance of life demanded 

 either creation or abiogenesis. 



It would be wrong, however, to think only of a materialistic 

 credo as the source of the idea of abiogenesis. For many 

 thinkers this credo did play a role, but it is not the only reason 



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