THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



connect their actions with sensation; no study of the 

 physical cell could predict that it could grow. 



Thus young students of biology have had imposed 

 upon them a wrong impression; they are taught to 

 look upon the physical body as the chief part of the 

 organism ; they subordinate the great mystery of the 

 universe, life, and fondly hope to explore its problems 

 in their little laboratories. For those who go further 

 into the study of biology and make it their life-work 

 such serious harm is probably not done, as there are 

 most important problems to be worked out in the 

 laboratory. Such workers lead a full and satisfied 

 life, more or less detached from the issues their dis- 

 coveries arouse; they are inclined to feel that all this 

 bother about human evolution is more or less of a dis- 

 traction. But the great majority of students take only 

 an elementary course in biology; they listen to lec- 

 tures and dissect a few of the simpler organisms un- 

 der the microscope. They leave the course imbued 

 with the idea that the problems of life have been 

 solved or will be solved when knowledge has in- 

 creased. They have been taught to be receptive to a 

 philosophy of materialism, and they confidently 

 spread its doctrines. Because they have learned some- 

 thing of the mechanism of the body, they think they 

 have included an apperception of life and thought, 

 that they can base their conduct on the sure founda- 

 tion of science rather than on the deep wisdom of 

 Plato or Jesus. It is to such people that the present 



C2763 



