128 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



literated. All pre-Cambrian fossils that may 

 once have existed were completely destroyed, and 

 even the Cambrian remnants have almost entirely 

 disappeared. "Should it be concluded from these 

 facts," asks Deperet-Wagner, "that we must for- 

 ever desist from hoping to solve a problem so 

 passionately discussed as that of the commence- 

 ment of life upon earth? Or at least to be able 

 to follow it further back?" And he mournfully 

 answers: "Unhappily it must be granted that this 

 is the most probable prospect." 3 We behold 

 therefore the absurdity of the bold and sweeping 

 assertions made in the name of science where cer- 

 tainty is a thing utterly and forever unattainable. 



But perhaps the most impressive fact of the en- 

 tire Scripture narrative of the creation of heaven 

 and earth, from a scientific point of view, is the 

 description that now appears for the first time, 

 of the sun, moon and stars, shining in the firma- 

 ment of heaven, long after the creation of light 

 itself. Here, as apparently throughout the en- 

 tire narrative, the viewpoint is the earth surface 

 from which all these events are pictured. To 

 quote but the sixteenth verse : 



And God made two great lights; a greater light 

 to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night; 

 and the stars. 



How indeed could Moses have known, without 



'"Die Umbildunff der Tierwelt," p. 312. See Karl Frank, 

 S. J., "The Theory of Evolution," pp. 22-26. 



