12 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



suggestion of being impersonal and universal. In how 

 many ways may the vital energy which actuates an in- 

 dividual display itself to other individuals? Without 

 raising any question concerning which expression of 

 creative personality is better and which is poorer, a 

 purely quantitative and coldly mathematical estimate 

 may be made. In how many ways can an Individual 

 express its personality; the earthworm and the ele- 

 phant, the bird and the fish, the dinosaur and the 

 man? Obviously, the evolutionary processes have suc- 

 ceeded in producing individuals which in successive 

 periods of time must be rated higher on this quanti- 

 tative scale. 



This and every other form of progress in evolution 

 seems to have been attained because the individuals 

 involved in the process were concerned with their own 

 future and occasionally improved their opportunities 

 to consummate their purposes. Purpose has been an 

 attribute of nature at least as long as squirrels have 

 gathered acorns for the coming winter or men have 

 assembled in councils of war or peace. Viewed in the 

 long perspective of geologic history, the purposes of 

 nature seem to be experimental rather than pre-deter- 

 mined. The goals which life has set are not final; 

 instead each seems to be immediate and temporary. 

 The attainment of an aim, which for a time was set 

 for a particular group of creatures, has in the past 

 provided simply a new starting point for renewed ex- 

 periments in ways and means of reaching some new 

 and more progressive ideal. It may be that through 

 the ages one increasing purpose runs, but what its final 

 end may be is not at present apparent to the mind of 



