EVOLUTION IN NATURAL SCIENCE 17 



or Jesuits, have declared in favour of polyphyletic 

 evolution. 



Allow me for a moment to view the subject from 

 the aspect of Christianity and to refer to the biblical 

 account of the creation. There we read (Gen. i. 

 11-25) that God created beasts and plants, each 

 according to its kind. This biblical expression is 

 not to be judged by the standard of modern zoology. 

 That the geological development of the world is 

 not irreconcilable with the biblical account is 

 universally acknowledged by theologians, and it 

 would seem that the same opinion is gaining weight 

 as to the development of the organic world. 1 



We must first of all state clearly that the Bible 

 is not intended to instruct us in modern science, and 

 we scientists of the twentieth century ought not to 

 seek zoological information in it. The Bible is 

 meant to give instruction, not on science, but 

 on the way of salvation, as Leo xin. proclaimed 

 in his beautiful encyclical Providentissimus Deus. 2 



The biblical account was compiled for the in- 

 formation of men of every age, independently of 

 the changing theories of human science. 



When we read the stately account in broad 

 outlines which Holy Scripture gives of the Creation, 

 and when we are told that God's creative word 

 produced the various kinds of plants and beasts 



1 Cf. P. Knabenbauer in Stimwien aus Maria-Loach, xiii., 1877 ; Glaube 

 und Deszendenztheorie (Faith and the Theory of Descent) ; also Modern 

 Biology, p. 255, etc. 



* Cf. the quotation in Modern Biology, p 446, note 1. 



