60 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



Spencer tells us: "At a remote period in the 

 past, when the temperature of the earth's sur- 

 face was much higher than at present, and other 

 physical conditions were unlike those we know, 

 inorganic matter, through successive complied- 

 tions, gave origin to organic matter." 7 

 > Since the theory of spontaneous generation is 

 entirely rejected by modern scientists, it follows 

 that the materialistic explanation of the begin- 

 ning of life, like the same explanation for the 

 existence of matter and motion, can be accepted 

 only on the supposition of a blind act of faith. 

 But, again, it is faith which must not for a mo- 

 ment be confounded with the faith of the Chris- 

 tian. The non-Catholic adult, as we have already 

 sufficiently shown, cannot accept the Catholic 

 Church as the Divine Teacher, appointed by Our 

 Lord to certify mankind as to the truths of the 

 Divine Revelation, until he has absolute proof 

 that the Catholic Church has indeed the needed 

 credentials of such a Divine teacher. 8 No such 

 proofs can ever be offered as motives of credi- 

 bility for those who are bidden to make an act 

 of faith in the assertions of materialistic science. 

 This is particularly true in the important ques- 

 tion of the origin of life. In the presence of 

 scientific men Huxley himself was bound implicitly 

 to admit the untenable position of dogmatic ma- 



* Nineteenth Century, May, 1886. 

 'The Month, Dec., 1917. 



