THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 39 
the earth, for whose service alone all the rest of nature is 
said to have been created. The former of these errors was 
demolished by Copernicus’ System of the Universe in the 
beginning of the 16th century, the latter by Lamarck’s 
Doctrine of Descent in the beginning of the 19th century. 
Although the geocentric error of the Mosaic history was 
demonstrated by Copernicus, and thereby its authority as 
an absolutely perfect divine revelation was destroyed, yet it 
has maintained, down to the present day, such influence, 
that it forms in many wide circles the principle obstacle to 
the adoption of a natural theory of development. Even 
in our century, many naturalists, especially geologists, 
have tried to bring the Mosaic theory into harmony 
with the recent results of natural science, and have, for 
example, interpreted Moses’ seven days of creation as seven 
great geological periods. However, all these ingenious 
attempts at interpretation have so utterly failed, that they 
require no refutation here. The Bible is no scientific book, 
but consists of records of the history, the laws, and the 
religion of the Jewish people, the high merit of which, as a 
history of civilization, is not impaired by the fact that in all 
scientific questions it has no commanding importance, and is 
full of gross errors. 
We may now make a great stride over more than three 
thousand years, from Moses, who died about the year 1480 
before Christ, to Linnzeus, who was born in the year 1707 
after Christ. During this whole period no history of creation 
was brought forward that gained any lasting importance, or 
the closer examination of which would here be of any 
interest. Indeed, during the last fifteen hundred years, 
since Christianity gained its supremacy, the Mosaic history 
