CHAPTER XV 



THK BIBI^E AND MIRACIvES 



Why Huxley Came to Write about the Bible— A Magna Charta 

 of the Poor— The Theological Use of the Bible— The Doc- 

 trine of Biblical Infallibility— The Bible and Science— The 

 Three Hypotheses of the Earth's History— Changes in the 

 Past Proved — The Creation Hypothesis — Gladstone on Gen- 

 esis— Genesis not a Record of Fact— The Hypothesis of Evo- 

 lution — The New Testament — Theory of InsjSiratiou — 

 Reliance on the Miraculous — The Continuity ^of Nature no 

 c /rzor/ Argument against Miracles — Pqssi-bilities and Im- 

 possibilities—Miracles a Question of Evidence — Praise of 

 the Bible. 



HUXIyKY was by training and habit of mind a nat- 

 uralist, busy with dissections and drawings, pur- 

 suing his branch of science for itself and with no 

 concern as to its possible relation to philosophical spec- 

 ulation or religious dogma. It is possible that, had his 

 life been passed under different conditions, his intel- 

 lectual activities might have been spent entirely on his 

 scientific work. As it was, he became almost more 

 widely known as a hostile critic of accepted religious 

 doctrine than as a man of science. Many causes con- 

 tributed to this effect, but the chief reason was the 

 contemporary attitude of the churches to Darwinism. 



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