MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE OR T. 209 



departure from every established canon of scientific 

 investigation." It was stigmatized as "flatly op- 

 posed to the fundamental doctrine of creation," and as 

 discharging God " from the governing of the world." 

 The distinguished Canadian geologist, Sir J. W. 

 Dawson, in speaking of the subject, affirms that 

 " the doctrine [of Evolution] as carried out to its 

 logical consequences excludes creation and Theism. 

 It may, however, be shown, that even in its more 

 modified forms, and when held by men who main- 

 tain that they are not atheists, it is practically 

 atheistic, because excluding the idea of plan and 

 design, and resolving all things into the action of 

 unintelligent forces." ' 



Evolution, Atheism and Nihilism.""" 



X V* j J ^ ' 5 



To judge from the declarations of some of the 

 most ardent champions of Evolution, it must be^ ad- 

 mitted that orthodoxy had reason to be at least 

 suspicious, of the theory that was heralded forth 

 with such pomp and circumstance. For it was 

 announced with the loudest flourish of trumpets, 

 not only that Evolution is a firmly established doc- 

 trine, about whose truth there can no longer be 

 any doubt, butjitjwas aj[so_boldly^ jeclared, by^some 

 of its most noted exponents, to be subversive of ajl 

 religion jmdj)f all belief in a Deity. Materialists, 

 atheists, and anarchists the world over, loudly pro- 

 claimed that there is no God, because, they would 

 have it, science had demonstrated that there is no 



1 " Story of the Earth and Man," p. 348. 



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