THEISTIC AND ATHEISTIC EVOLUTION 25 



Dualism, with which Christianity is charged, main- 

 tains that God is essentially distinct from the 

 world. Monism declares that its God is essentially 

 identical with the world. We need not ask how 

 much is left for ' God,' when we have subtracted 

 the c world ' from Him, as if we were working a sum 

 in algebra obviously the remainder the actual 

 being of God is nothing. In this way monism 

 turns out to be mere atheism, when we examine it 

 closely. 1 



The kind of monism with which we are concerned 

 this evening is therefore metaphysical monism. 



Our next business is to state shortly the postulates 

 and axioms of the two theories, to compare them 

 with one another, and to test their relative values. 



First let us take the postulates and presupposi- 

 tions of the monistic theory. 



1. We must not accept the existence of any 

 personal Creator, of any so-called extramundane 

 God, but assume the existence of the world with 

 its laws from all eternity. 



2. Dependent upon this is the further postulate : 

 In order to account for the origin of the first 

 organisms, we must assume a ' spontaneous 

 generation,' i.e. a spontaneous development of the 

 first organisms from inorganic matter. 



3. We must not assume any kind of conscious 



1 Of. on this subject my remarks on Dr. Schmidt-Jena's speech in 

 Part ii. The distinctions between Theism, Deism, and Pantheism are 

 there brought out more clearly. 



