CHAPTER ONE 



Introduction 

 Evolution as Science and Faith 



SINCE the Renaissance, which reached its full de- 

 velopment in Italy during the fifteenth century^ 

 man has fallen more and more under the domination 

 of science and has correspondingly relaxed the author- 

 ity of religion. It is this fundamental change in atti- 

 tude of mind which most distinguishes us from the 

 Middle Ages. Try as we will, we utterly fail to un- 

 derstand the mental state of those who subordinated 

 reason to faith, who regarded the miraculous as more 

 trustworthy than the natural, and who condemned 

 mortal desires as the enemy of the soul. On the other 

 hand the history of civilization, since the Renais- 

 sance, is like the unfolding of the connected biogra- 

 phy of a man from youth to maturity. 



The rise of modern science may be dated from the 

 publication of the heliocentric system of Copernicus 

 in 1543. The profound change in thought, which the 

 mere substitution of the sun as the centre of our plan- 

 etary system and the ascription of two motions to the 

 earth were destined to produce, was not recognized 

 at first. In fact, the Church did not foresee the 

 theological and social consequences of this theory un- 



