342 RAYMOND J. NOGAR 



bias at the converging evidence, must be convinced of the very 

 high probabiHty that evolution has taken place. He does not 

 address himself to that problem; he merely advises professional 

 caution. The proposition he does controvert is that the " fact 

 of evolution " applies equally and unequivocally to the origin 

 of all cosmic entities; the universe, the nebulae, the stars, the 

 elements, life, diversity of organisms, man's body, his mind, 

 culture and society, morals, religion, language and art. In fact, 

 Humani Generis controverts just what the Darwin Centennial 

 Celebration controverted when it manifestly showed that the 

 phrase " fact of evolution " applies equivocally to many scien- 

 tific disciplines, and to some areas, not at all. Let us see what 

 happened at the Darwin Centennial in its application of the 

 concept " fact of evolution." 



The Fact of Evolution 



Whether there is presently sufficient converging evidence for 

 the reasonable and unanimous (among scientists) conviction 

 that monophyletic descent with modification accounts for the 

 variety of organic species, including man, on the earth was 

 not even discussed at the Darwin Centennial Convention. As 

 Simpson wrote in his The Meaning of Evolution (1949) , the 

 evidence is in and the case has been fairly adjudicated. As- 

 suming two essential propositions: (1) that a natural explana- 

 tion, consonant with what we know now in neo-biology about 

 organic development, is available; and, (2) that extrapolation, 

 analogy and indirect convergent proof be allowed where direct 

 proof is unavailable; then, the accumulation of arguments 

 found in any good modern text-book on evolution suffice to 

 convince the unbiased and objective observer that evolution 

 has, in fact, taken place. ^^ 



Indeed, the case for the prehistoric fact of organic evolution 

 is a very good one. Biologists no longer question it, that is to 

 say, they have no reasonable doubts about the connected series 

 of natural events distributing organic species in space and 



^* The Meaning of Evolution (New Haven, 1949) pp. 4-5. 



