XXI. 



GENESIS AND GEOLOGY. 



Does the account of creation given in Genesis 

 conflict with the geological record? I shall not enter 

 upon a lengthy discussion of this much-debated ques- 

 tion. To begin with, I will state that I do not think 

 that the known evidence will justify the conclusion 

 that there is a conflict between these two records. 



It must be admitted that the geological record of 

 creation extends over millions of years, and this ren- 

 ders it necessary to interpret the word "day," in the 

 first chapter of Genesis, as an indefinite period. It 

 is so used, I think, in the fourth verse of the second 

 chapter, where it is said, "These are the generations 

 of the heaven and of the earth when they were cre- 

 ated, in the day that the Lord God made earth and 

 heaven." 



Our knowledge of the geological record is very 

 imperfect. As already stated in the chapters on Pale- 

 ontology, Darwin, Romanes and other evolutionists 

 insist that the known part of the record is as nothing 

 compared to the unknown. According to their the- 

 ory, the entire first half of the record, that preceding 

 the Primordial period, in geology, is entirely lost. 



Romanes speaks of the whole geological record as 

 being so imperfect that it merits the name, " a chap- 

 ter of accidents." 



We have seen that, according to the theory of evo- 

 lution, it is necessary to assume that every class and 



order of animals originated at a much earlier period 



(344) 



