Creation 

 Criticism 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



140 



to the inhabitants of the satellites is worthy 

 of our attention. Seen from the first sat- 

 ellite, the Jovian globe presents an im- 

 mense disk of twenty degrees in diameter, or 

 1,400 times larger than the full moon! 

 What a body! What a picture, with its 

 belts, its cloud-motions, and its glowing 

 coloration, seen from so near ! What a noc- 

 turnal sun! still warm, perhaps. Add to 

 this the aspect of the satellites themselves 

 seen from each other, and you have a spec- 

 tacle of which no terrestrial night can give 

 an idea. FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, 

 bk. iv, ch. 7, p. 429. (A.) 



691. 



The Nebula of Orion 



A Vast Aggregation of Gaseous Matter 

 Wider than Our Solar System Nebulce That 

 Cannot Be Resolved Unformed Matter. 

 On a very clear and transparent night of 

 winter, at midnight in December, look be- 

 low the belt of Orion and you will distin- 

 guish the mass of nebulous light which 

 glimmers in that constellation. Take a tele- 

 scope, even of small power, and you remark 

 the beautiful quadruple star (it is even 

 sextuple ) , Orionis, surrounded by the most 

 curious of nebulae. Here is no cluster of 

 suns; it is luminous, gaseous matter, a 

 little greenish. The spectroscope shows in 

 its spectrum three bright lines sharply de- 

 fined, and separated by dark intervals. A 

 spectrum of this nature can only be pro- 

 duced by light which emanates from mat- 

 ter in the state of gas. What is this cos- 

 mical gas? [Recent researches show that 

 this nebula contains hydrogen, but not nitro- 

 gen. J. E. GORE.] This immense nebula, the 

 finest in the heavens, occupies a space much 

 vaster than our whole planetary system! 

 FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, bk. vi, ch. 

 10, p. 633. (A.) 



692. CREATION, SYSTEM OF, IN 

 KORAN Mohammedan Intolerance a Check 

 upon Science. The cosmological opinions 

 expressed in the Koran are few, and merely 

 introduced incidentally; so that it is not 

 easy to understand how they could have in- 

 terfered so seriously with free discussion on 

 the former changes of the globe. ' The 

 Prophet declares that the earth was created 

 in two days, and the mountains were then 

 placed on it; and during these, and two ad- 

 ditional days, the inhabitants of the earth 

 were formed; and in tw r o more the seven 

 heavens. There is no more detail of circum- 

 stances ; and the deluge, which is also men- 

 tioned, is discussed with equal brevity. The 

 waters are represented to have poured out 

 of an oven a strange fable, said to be bor- 

 rowed from the Persian Magi, who repre- 

 sented them as issuing from the oven of an 

 old woman. All men were drowned, save 

 Noah and his family; and then God said: 

 " O earth, swallow up thy waters ; and thou, 

 O heaven, withhold thy rain," and imme- 

 diately the waters abated. LYELL Princi- 

 ples of Geology, bk. i. ch. 3, p. 18. (A., 1854.) 



693. CREATION TRANSCENDS HU- 

 MAN THOUGHT " With Whom Took He 

 Counsel, or Who Instructed Him?" (Is. xl, 

 12) " Where Wast Thou when I Laid the 

 Foundations of the Earth?" (Job xxxviii, 

 4-12)- In one form or another, if we specu- 

 late at all on the development of the plan- 

 etary system, our speculations are driven 

 into conformity with the broad lines of the 

 nebular hypothesis so far, at least, as ad- 

 mitting an original material unity and mo- 

 tive uniformity. But we can see now, better 

 than formerly, that these supply a bare and 

 imperfect sketch of the truth. We should 

 err gravely were we to suppose it possible 

 to reconstruct, with the help of any knowl- 

 edge our race is ever likely to possess, the 

 real and complete history of our admirable 

 system. " The subtlety of Nature," Bacon 

 says, " transcends in many ways the sub- 

 tlety of the intellect and senses of man." 

 By no mere barren formula of evolution, in- 

 discriminately applied all round, the results 

 we marvel at, and by a fragment of which 

 our life is conditioned, were brought forth; 

 but by the manifold play of interacting 

 forces, variously modified and variously pre- 

 vailing, according to the local requirements 

 of the design they were appointed to exe- 

 cute. CLERKE History of Astronomy, pt. ii, 

 ch. 9, p. 391. (Bl., 1893.) 



694. CREATOR CANNOT BE DE- 

 MONSTRATED Origin of Life a Mystery- 

 Decision Must Be upon Facts. I grant that 

 we have no such evidence of an active 

 creative power as science requires for posi- 

 tive demonstration of her laws, and that we 

 cannot explain the processes which lie at the 

 origin of life. ... I bring this subject 

 before you now, not to urge upon you this or 

 that theory, strong as my own convictions 

 are. . . . Whatever be your ultimate 

 opinions on this subject, let them rest on 

 facts and not on arguments, however plau- 

 sible. This is not a question to be argued, 

 it is one to be investigated. AGASSIZ Jour- 

 ney in Brazil, ch. 1, p. 43. (H. M. & Co., 

 1896.) 



695. CREATURES OF FANCY "Na- 

 ked Specks of Protoplasm." " What present 

 warrant," it has been asked, " is there for 

 supposing that a naked, or almost naked, 

 speck of protoplasm can withstand four, six, 

 or eight hours' boiling ? " Regarding naked 

 specks of protoplasm I make no assertion. 

 I know nothing about them, save as the 

 creatures of fancy. But I do affirm, not as 

 a " supposition," nor an " assumption," nor 

 a " probable guess," nor as " a wild hypoth- 

 esis," but as a matter of the most un- 

 doubted fact, that the spores of the hay 

 bacillus, when thoroughly desiccated by age, 

 have withstood the ordeal mentioned [four 

 to eight hours' boiling]. TYNDALL Floating 

 Matter of the Air, essay 3, p. 307. (A., 

 1895.) 



