EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



lation, reason, as we have seen, demands no less 

 than these three creative acts : the creation of the 

 primal matter, of the first life and of the intel- 

 lectual soul of man. Briefly to repeat: 



Experience and philosophy alike tell us that 

 matter is contingent. It therefore requires a nec- 

 essary cause that of its very nature is self-existent 

 and non-contingent. This Being we call God. 

 Science again tells us that life did not exist from 

 the beginning in this material universe, and that 

 it could not have been transported here from 

 some distant planet, since this would but trans- 

 fer the same difficulty to another sphere. Sci- 

 ence further informs us that spontaneous genera- 

 tion cannot be admitted. Philosophy confirms 

 the truth of this by showing the absurdity of sup- 

 posing that life could arise from dead matter. 

 Clearly there is need here, therefore, of the in- 

 terference of an external agency. Again, the 

 Agency that was necessary to create life, we call 

 God. Finally, the intellect of man transcends all 

 things purely sensitive and material. It differs 

 essentially from the brute instinct. The brute is 

 incapable of intelligent language because it is in- 

 capable of forming mental abstractions, because it 

 is without the faculty of reason. To bridge this 

 third chasm a creative act must of necessity be 

 supposed, a necessity which no one, indeed, could 

 question except under the influence of the pre- 

 conceived prejudice of materialistic evolution. 



