An Introduction to a Biology 



if we try to understand the changes which have 

 taken place in so relatively brief a period as that 

 occupied by the origin of a handful of new forms 

 from their parent stock. This, then, is the first 

 ground on which the Mosaic account of creation 

 has been rejected by orthodox biology. It is 

 a ground of fact, and in my opinion it is firm 

 ground. 



The second ground on which the Mosaic account 

 has been rejected is a philosophical one ; and although 

 at first glance it appears, by reason of its use-worn 

 surface, to be firm too, it is, in point of fact, a verit- 

 able quagmire which has led many an unwary one 

 to a disastrous end. This second ground is that 

 the Mosaic account of creation must be untrue 

 because it is anthropomorphic. Anthropomorphism, 

 strictly speaking, means the endowing of a God with 

 the form of a man. But the meaning of the word 

 has been enlarged at both ends. It has, very pro- 

 perly, been extended at the human end to the 

 endowing of God with attributes which are more 

 essentially human than the mere shape of man — 

 namely, the way in which man does things, and 

 the kind of things he does. It has also been enlarged 

 at the '' endowed " end so as to mean the endowing 

 of anything, usually some non-human living thing, 

 with anything human. The extension of the word 

 at this end came about, during the nineteenth 

 century, fari "passu with the growth of a disbelief 

 in God, especially amongst men of science. There 

 was no god for them to endow with human attri- 

 butes. It was a pity that a good long word like 

 anthropomorphism should be wasted. So it was 



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