May, 1932 



EVOLUTION 



Page fifteen 



How They Argued 



Compiled by Paitlme H. Dederej 



' 1600 YEARS AGO 



Lactantius wroce an essay on the Heretical 

 Doctrine of the Globtilnr Form of the Earth. 

 He said; "Is it possible that men can be so 

 absurd as to believe that there are crops and 

 trees on the other side of the earth that 

 hang downward, and that men have their 

 feet higher than their heads? If you ask 

 them how they defend these monstrosities? 

 — how things do not fall away from the 

 earth on that side? — they reply that the 

 nature of things is such, that heavy bodies 

 tend to\iard the centre hke the spokes of 

 a wheel, while light bodies, as clouds, smoke, 

 fire, tend from the centre to the heavens on 

 all sides. Now I am really at a loss what to 

 say of those who, when they have once gone 

 wrong, steadily persevere in their folly, and 

 defend one absurd opinion by another." 

 Draper: History of Intellectual Development 

 of Europe. 



500 YEARS AGO 

 "There arose a grievous quarrel among 

 the brethren over the number of teeth in the 

 mouth of a horse. For thirteen days the dis- 

 putation raged without ceasing. All the an- 

 cient books and chronicles were fetched out, 

 and wonderful and ponderous erudition, 

 such as was never before heard of in this re- 

 gion, was made manifest. Ac the beginning 

 of the fourteenth day, a youthful friar 

 asked his learned superiors to look in the open 

 mouth of a horse for answer to their 

 questionings. At this, their dignity being 

 grievously hurt, they waxed exceedingly 

 wroth; and, joining in a mighty uproar, they 

 flew upon him and smote him hip and 

 thigh, and cast him out forthwith. For, said 

 they, surely Satan hath tempted this bold 

 neophyte to declare unholy and unheard-of 

 ways of finding truth contrary to all the 

 teaching of the fathers. After many days 

 more of grievous strife tl^^V ^s one man, 

 declaring the problem to be an everlasting 

 mystery because of a grievous dearth of 

 historical and theological evidence thereof, 

 so ordered the same writ down." Quoted in 

 Science Progress, Credited to Francis Bacon. 



100 YEARS AGO 



"There was circulated in New England 

 a paper which put forth the following ob- 

 jections to the introduction of gas lighting: 



A theological objection: Artificial illu- 

 mination is an attempt to interfere with the 

 divine plan of the world, which had pre- 

 ordained that the night should be dark. 



'A medical objection: Emanations of il- 

 luminating gas arc injurious. Lighted streets 

 will incline people to remain out of doors, 

 thus leading to more ailments through colds. 



'A moral objection: The fear of darkness 

 ^k will vanish and depravity increase. 



'Police objection: Horses will be fright- 

 ened and thieves emboldened.' " A rticle in 

 Connecticut Newspaper, 1926. 



TWO YEARS AGO 

 "An effort should be made this winur 

 in every state, to secure by legislative enact- 



ment, a law prohibiting the teaching of the 

 brute origin of man in tax-supported schools 

 .ind colleges, since the false 'science' of evo- 

 lution is the chief support of infidelity and 

 atheism. 



"I shall be glad to send free a copy of 

 my 'Evolution Disproved' by 50 convincing 

 scientific arguments, to all members of com- 

 mittees considering such bills — — — . 



'Will you kindly insert this notice for 

 the sake of the truth and the protection of 

 youth?" Rer. W. A. Williams. Camden, N. }. 



LAST YEAR 

 The Tennessee House of Representatives 

 gave approval to the statute prohibiting the 

 teaching of the theory of evolution in schools 

 wholly or partly supported by state funds, 

 by rejecting a bill to repeal the law. Only 

 14 voted for repeal, while 58 voted to sus- 

 tain the anti-evolution law. 



Question Box 



Ansryers by Allen Broms, unless otherwise 

 credited. Send your questions. 



SCIENTIFIC JAWBREAKERS 

 Q. Why do scientists use those big Greek 

 and Latin words? Why not understandable 

 English ones? Are they trying to mystify? 

 — F. R. M. 



A. Depend upon it, the scientists are 

 trying to clarify, not mystify, though some- 

 times their jawbreaker words seem to belie 

 that statement. Usually the trouble is. 

 however, that we are not familiar with the 

 things they talk about. If we knew about 

 them, the words naming them would not 

 seem hard at all. Witness the words Hippo- 

 potamus, Rhinoceros, Elephant, Boa Con- 

 strictor, etc., all of them big and Greek, yet 

 giving us not a single worry because we know 

 about the things they mean. Just to prove 

 that, consider the easy, two-syllable word 

 "hallux." Now really you should know 

 what that means, you certainly have had it 

 in your mouth often enough, at least as a 

 youngster, for the word just means what you 

 call "big toe." Then why does not the 

 scientist just say "big toe"? For several 

 reasons; for one thing, the big toe among 

 some animals is not really the big one, so 

 the name often would not apply. In the 

 second place, a German scientist would have 

 to translate "big" and "toe" into his lang- 

 uage, and a Frenchman into his, and so on, 

 while they do not have to translate hallux 

 at all, that being common to all the lang- 

 uages, or should we say it is a word of a 

 common international scientific language 

 which all scientists understand. A third, 

 and very good, reason is that we would soon 

 run out of distinctive English descriptive 

 names, we would just have to use the same 

 words over and over again, and name our 

 plants and animals by describing them in 

 detail, which, of course, would not do at all. 

 The scientist's jawbreakers do look formid- 

 .ib!e, but only until you get acquainted with 

 the things he means. That requires stud"- 

 ing his sciences, without which his words 

 mean very little anyway. 



Funnymentals 



Thus the wife of a missionary, laboring 

 with "undraped denizens of the woods," 

 somewhere south of Suez: 



"The natives were greatly amused when my 

 husband told them that there were a few 

 white men who thought that men were the 

 descendants of monkeys. Some of the sav- 

 ages lay down on their backs and giggled 

 with laughter at the idea." Quoted; Chris- 

 tian Faith and Life, August, 1931, p. 435. 



"Evolution is not only anti-Scriptural, 

 anti-Christian, and anti-Spiritual, but is 

 contrary to the best conception of science 

 in fact as well as in reason. How some 

 scientists, who pride themselves on the rigid 

 conformation of their theories to the tests 

 of experiment and observation, can even 

 think evolution is a shrewd theory marks 

 them as devoid of real scientific skill. It is 

 the most unscientific theory held by thinking 

 men today. There is not a properly applied 

 principle of science which will justify such 

 a position. Every basal law of science has to 

 be set aside to permit it." From a sermon 

 by the hero of "Our Serial — The Clamping 

 of the Shackles", Christian Faith and Life, 

 August, 1931, p. 446. 



' Believers in evolution are one-third beast, 

 one third devil, and one-third university pro- 

 fessor". Rev. Dixon, sermon in Calvary 

 Baptist Church, New York City. 



"The U. S. Government maintains a de- 

 partment for Pest Control and Eradication. 

 We do not know which our prominent Uni- 

 versities need the most, — the de-lousing 

 machines that were used in the army, or the 

 rat catchers that patrol the sewers of the 

 great cities in time of peace." Editorial in 

 Christian Fundamentalist, April, 1932. 



SEND US FUNNYMENTALS 



if you run across remarks of fundamen- 

 talists that you consider worthy of publica- 

 tion in this column. But be sure to quote 

 accurately and give exact authority. 



MORE BONERS FROM EXAMS 



The Rhinoceros has three feet therefore 

 an odd number of toes. 



Peristalsis is a syncopated movement, 

 necessary in digestion. 



The first man pertained to Erectus Phil- 

 antrocreepus. 



Puberty is the period that intervenes be- 

 tween adolescence and adultery. 



The Protozoa move by extending a 

 pseudonym and moving the rest of the body 

 into it. 



A peneplane is a land form which has 

 reached the lowest depth of degradation 

 while trying to remain on the level. 



The gall bladder is a secretive gland. 

 * 



Readers are invited to report "Boners". 



