CHAPTER EW ©, 
Unexplained Origins. 
The evolutionary scheme of development is, by its 
originators and defenders, accepted as a working hypo- 
thesis by which it is believed that the origin of all forms 
which matter has taken, and of the activities of living 
things, including man and human society, can be ac- 
counted for. It is an attempt to answer the old question, 
suggested to the thinking mind by a contemplation of 
nature: Whence these things? It is a theory of origins. 
Now, a hypothesis, being “a theory, or supposition, 
provisionally employed as an explanation of phenomena,” 
must be verified before it can be accepted as truth. 
Moreover, it can stand even as a hypothesis only if it meets 
the test of observation and experiment. If it can dem- 
onstrate its adaption to explain all the facts, it may, until 
another and better theory is propounded, be accepted as 
a theory. When it does not explain the facts, it must be 
modified or abandoned. 
Since the evolutionary hypothesis is employed as an 
explanation of certain origins, a legitimate test of the 
theory is its adaptation to explain these origins. This 
test we now shall apply. We shall try to answer the 
question: Is the evolutionary theory entitled to the name 
of a working hypothesis? Is it able to account for those 
things which it is set forth by its spokesmen to account 
for? Does it account for the origin of the universe, of 
life, and of the various forms of life? 
