EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 



case, the scientist on his experimental plane notes a mutation, 

 a new threshold crossed by life in its continuous ascent. But 

 on the ontological plane the theologian and the philosopher 

 discern the creative action of God. 



C. Adult or Embryo? 



These considerations open up a new aspect of the problem. 

 We all acknowledge that God could have used matter already 

 existing and living to form the body of the first men, and 

 that thus a line of physical descent would relate man to the 

 animal world. But when we try to envision the situation in 

 the concrete, we find ourselves enmeshed in perplexity. If we 

 admit that God transformed an adult organism into man, we 

 are entertaining a hypothesis that preserves only a tenuous 

 connection with any theory of evolution. On the other hand, 

 if we maintain that the change was effected in the embryonic 

 state, we find it hard to imagine the first men living their 

 infant life in the midst of brute animals. 



We may suppose that when a certain anthropoid family 

 arrived by evolution at a suitable stage of morphological and 

 cerebral perfection, God caused to come forth from that family 

 the first human infant or a pair of infants. Since even apes 

 and monkeys have a highly developed maternal sentiment, we 

 may further conjecture that such a sentiment was enhanced 

 in our anthropoid group. Then, after a period of necessary 

 rearing and growth, the human boy and girl may have 

 separated from the horde and set out to lead a free life. 

 However, if we wish to avoid a superficial simplicity, we must 

 confess that we are faced with a problem that has not received 

 an adequate solution. Appeal to the Bible will do no good. 

 The author of Genesis supplies no answer, for no question of 

 the first men's biological descent ever crossed his mind. 



D. Paradise Man and Primitive Man 



Possibly a greater problem, and one for which, certainly, a 

 facile solution is not available, arises from the state of perfec- 

 tion in which, according to theology, the first human beings 

 lived in the beginning. 



Between the biblical accounts of the creation of the man 

 and woman is inserted the passage about Paradise. "The Lord 



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