CHAPTER III 
THE RELATION OF EVOLUTION TO MATERIALISM: 
JosEpH LE ConTE 
It is seen in the sketch given in the previous chapter that, after 
every struggle between theology and science, there has been a read- 
justment of some beliefs, a giving up of some notions which really had 
nothing to do with religion in a proper sense, but which had become 
so associated with religious belief as to be confounded with the latter— 
a giving up of some line of defense which ought never to have been 
held because not within the rightful domain of theology at all. Until 
the present the whole difficulty has been the result of misconception, 
and Christianity has emerged from every struggle only strengthened 
and purified, by casting off an obstructing shell which hindered its 
growth. But the present struggle seems to many an entirely different 
and far more serious matter. To many it seems no longer a struggle 
of theology, but of essential religion itseli—a deadly life-and-death 
struggle between religion and materialism. To many, both skeptics 
and Christians, evolution seems to be synonymous with blank mate- 
rialism, and therefore cuts up by the roots every form of religion by 
denying the existence of God and the fact of immortality. That the 
enemies of religion, if there be any such, should assume and insist on 
this identity, and thus carry over the whole accumulated evidence of 
evolution as a demonstration of materialism, although wholly unwar- 
ranted, is not so surprising; but what shall we say of the incredible 
folly of her friends in admitting the same identity! 
A little reflection will explain this. There can be no doubt that 
there is at present a strong and to many an overwhelming tend- 
ency toward materialism. The amazing achievements of modern 
science; the absorption of intellectual energy in the investigation of 
external nature and the laws of matter have created a current in that 
direction so strong that of those who feel its influence—of those who 
do not stay at home, shut up in their creeds, but walk abroad in the 
light of modern thought—it sweeps away and bears on its bosom all 
1 From J. Le Conte, Evolution (copyright 1888). Used by special permission 
of the publishers, D. Appleton & Company. 
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