THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



Professor Conklin apparently believes that some 

 form of natural selection is the only scientific cause 

 and method of evolution, he certainly believes that 

 the man of science is the guide to truth, and yet he 

 also admits that natural selection is an unproved hy- 

 pothesis. We must feel, therefore, that when he passes 

 from the strictly scientific statement of biological evo- 

 lution to the evolution of society and religion, he has 

 forsaken scientific methods and is merely expressing 

 an unverifiable opinion as to the future of the race. 

 If natural selection is not a proved hypothesis but one 

 which is steadily losing ground, then it must be a very 

 treacherous guide to lead us through the intricacies 

 of our social and religious life, a guide more likely 

 to confuse than to aid. 



As a second example of the biologist's position, we 

 may cite from Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn. As 

 Curator of the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory he is an authority on palaeontology, and as a 

 popular writer on the history of evolution his opin- 

 ions have a great circulation. "In contrast to the unity 

 of opinion on the law of evolution is the wide diver- 

 sity of opinion on the causes of evolution. In fact, the 

 causes of the evolution of life are as mysterious as 

 the law of evolution is certain. Some contend that we 

 already know the chief causes of evolution, others 

 contend that we know little or nothing of them. In 

 this open court of conjecture, of hypothesis, of more 

 or less heated controversy, the great names of 



1:263 



