ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



the simplest bit of machinery — parts adjusted 

 to parts, and the whole adjusted to some specific 

 end. In all the clashing and jostling of bodies and 

 forces through all the astronomic and geologic 

 ages, .not so much as the simplest mechanical de- 

 vice — a coiled spring or a carpenter's hammer 

 — has been struck out, and never can be. It is true 

 that there are certain static conditions of mat- 

 ter that suggest design — natural bridges, natural 

 obelisks, rude architectural and monumental struc- 

 tures, and human profiles on the rocks; but these 

 are not the result of a constructive process, of a 

 building-up, but the result of degradation: the ero- 

 sive forces carve them out in obedience to the laws 

 of matter and energy. We easily see how it all came 

 about; and we can guide these forces so that they 

 will repeat the process. But we do not see how the 

 living body, with all its marvelous adjustments and 

 coordinations, came about, and we cannot manipu- 

 late matter so as to produce the simplest living 

 thing. Darwinians profess to see in natural selec- 

 tion — which is simply a name for an eliminating or 

 sifting process — the explanation of even man him- 

 self. But the elimination of the weaker forms, which 

 has gone on for whole geologic ages — for example, 

 in the Grand Canon of the Colorado — has not 

 resulted in so much as one perfect, four-square 

 foundation, or one perfect flying arch. Natural se- 

 lection is not a creative, but a purely mechanical, 



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