FACTS AND FACTORS OF DEVELOPMENT 45 



fended by certain modern theologians, but has 

 been formally condemned by the Roman 

 Catholic Church. 



Traducianism undoubtedly comes nearer 

 the scientific teachings as to the development 

 of the mind than does either of the other doc- 

 trines named, but it is based upon the preva- 

 lent but erroneous belief that the bodies of the 

 parents generate the body of the child, and 

 that correspondingly the souls of the parents 

 generate the soul of the child. Now we know 

 that the child comes from germ cells and not 

 from the highly differentiated bodies of the 

 parents, and furthermore that these cells are 

 not made by the parents' bodies but have arisen 

 by the division of antecedent germ cells (see 

 p. 99) . Consequently it is not possible to hold 

 that bodies generate bodies or even germ 

 cells, nor that souls generate souls. The 

 only possible scientific position is that the 

 mind (or soul) as well as the body develops 

 from the germ. 



No fact in human experience is more certain 

 than that the mind develops by gradual and 

 natural processes from a simple condition 



