An Introduction to a Biology 



if we try to understand the changes which have 

 taken place in so relatively brief a period as that 

 occupied by the origin of a handful of new forms 

 from their parent stock. This, then, is the first 

 ground on which the Mosaic account of creation 

 has been rejected by orthodox biology. It is 

 a ground of fact, and in my opinion it is firm 

 ground. 



The second ground on which the Mosaic account 

 has been rejected is a philosophical one ; and although 

 at first glance it appears, by reason of its use-worn 

 surface, to be firm too, it is, in point of fact, a verit- 

 able quagmire which has led many an unwary one 

 to a disastrous end. This second ground is that 

 the Mosaic account of creation must be untrue 

 because it is anthropomorphic. Anthropomorphism, 

 strictly speaking, means the endowing of a God with 

 the form of a man. But the meaning of the word 

 has been enlarged at both ends. It has, very pro- 

 perly, been extended at the human end to the 

 endowing of God with attributes which are more 

 essentially human than the mere shape of man 

 namely, the way in which man does things, and 

 the kind of things he does. It has also been enlarged 

 at the " endowed " end so as to mean the endowing 

 of anything, usually some non-human living thing, 

 with anything human. The extension of the word 

 at this end came about, during the nineteenth 

 century, pari passu with the growth of a disbelief 

 in God, especially amongst men of science. There 

 was no god for them to endow with human attri- 

 butes. It was a pity that a good long word like 

 anthropomorphism should be wasted. So it was 



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