every one of the thousand billion variant forms which must have existed, and has preserved only such evidences, and those in great abundance, as oppose his theory. It may be said of this explanation that it is even harder to understand and to accept than that which it purports to explain-the absence of all trace of a "law" which is said to have operated universally and from the very beginning of time. The great god, Evolution, is indeed as difficult to locate or find a trace of as the Olympian Zeus. Imagine a litigant in court upon whom rests the burden of proof. He insists that the averments of his declaration are true, and demands a verdict in his favor; but he has no proofs to sustain his allegations. In fact all the evidence presented in court is against him. He demands, nevertheless, that judgment be rendered in his favor upon the supposition (a) that volumes of proofs, which once existed, have been destroyed, leaving no trace; and (b) that if those proofs. could now be produced they would be found to be in his favor! Such is the absurd plight in which the theory of Evolution now finds itself, as matters stand at present. As to this important feature of the discussion it is enough to say that, considering the great mass of fossilized remains which have been collected from every stratum, and from every part of the world, the presumption is that, if the records were complete, the parts now missing would confirm what we have. Species The first fossil remains of organisms are Appeared found in the Primordial period. Le Conte Suddenly says that in it are found "the representatives of all the great types of animals, except the vertebrates." Thus, according to the evidence (which, by Le Conte's statement, is massive in quantity and clear in character), numerous highly organized creatures-about half the entire animal king dom in fact-came suddenly and virtually simultaneously into existence. Of their supposed progenitors, of whom, if Evolution be true, countless billions must have existed, not a trace survives in the earlier formations. This is the more impressive because those earlier formations are estimated to have occupied about half the entire period of geological time. (In this discussion we are giving the evolutionist the advantage of supposing, for the purpose of the argument, that his theory of immense ages of geological time is correct. That theory is, in fact, quite destitute of supporting proof, and we wish it to be understood that we do not accept it as true.) Great Gaps Another very striking fact which this earliest record of living creatures presents is that, "from the very beginning the great gulfs which separate the animal kingdom into sub-kingdoms and classes existed then, and have continued till the present time" (Fairhurst). Considering that the interval from the Primordial period until now is estimated by physicists at fifty millions of years, we have in this fact of stability of the species a conclusive proof that Evolution is a myth. Another striking fact, to which these records bear witness, and which is fatal to the theory, is that every species, as it suddenly appears, has its complete organism; that is to say, it is fully developed in every feature of its structure, however complex. If, therefore, we place ourselves in imagination in the Primordial period, amidst the immense number of varieties of living creatures then existent, whether we look backward into the past, or forward into the future, we see that Evolution had nothing whatever to do with their origin or development. In one direction we see no long ancestral line from which they were gradually evolved; for the species, like each in dividual member thereof, came into being suddenly. This may be termed "negative" evidence. But such evidence is sometimes conclusive, as when a thorough exploration of an island reveals no remains whatever of man or human implements, it may be concluded with certainty that it was never inhabited by man. But on looking forward the evidence is positive, as well as conclusive. For the very same species found in the Primordial era, and appearing suddenly, are in existence today without substantial change of structure or habit of life. Evolution requires, and of course would produce, life-forms quite flexible and plastic, structures such that every part of every organ and surface would be liable at all times to variation, and would be subject to change whenever a change of environment occurs. But we find, on the contrary, absolute rigidity of both structure and habit. On this evidence we are bound to conclude that living creatures originated in a manner very different from that assumed by the evolutionist. As has been already stated, the earliest geological remains of organisms show lower and higher forms of life existing side by side. Now, according to Evolution, the former would be the progenitors of the latter; and upon that supposition there must have been already at that early period an immense evolutionary advance, which would imply that such lower forms were exceedingly progressive in character. But this supposition (and with it the entire theory) is completely negatived by the fact that those self-same forms have persisted without change to this very day. Instead of being progressive, as Evolution demands, they are proven to be absolutely unprogressive. Every one of those million forms is a venerable witness (50) million years old, if our geologists are right) against the theory of Evolution. What reply has the evolutionist to these facts? Worse than none. Mr. Huxley, one of the ablest of them all, and one who openly devoted his great talents to the destruction of faith in Divine revelation, has faced these facts in his address to the Royal Geological Society in 1870. He puts the question thus: "What then does an impartial survey of the positively ascertained truths of paleontology testify in relation to the common doctrines of progressive modification (i. e. Evolution), which suppose that modification to have taken place from more to less embryonic forms, from more to less generalized types, within the limits of the period represented by the fossiliferous rocks?" And he answers the question by saying, "I reply, it negatives those doctrines; for it either shows us no evidence of such modifications, or it demonstrates such modification as has occurred to have been very slight. The significance of persistent types, and the small amount of change which has taken place even in those forms which can be shown to have been modified, becomes greater and greater in my eyes, the longer I occupy myself with the Biology of the past" (quoted by Th. Graebner, in "Evolution"). The Fragmen- The disappointed evolutionist pleads tary Character the imperfection of the geological of the Record records. In order that his theory may not be dismissed for lack of proof, he asks us to believe that much of the pertinent evidence has been lost, and that what has been lost was in favor of his theory. But Le Conte says: "We think the fragmentariness of the geological record has been overstated." And the Duke of Argyll, in his Organic Evolution Cross-Examined, shows conclusively that, in certain periods, the plea of imperfection of the record is completely ruled out. "There are," says he, "some tracts of time regarding which our records are as complete as we could desire. In the Jurassic rocks we have a continuous and undisturbed series of long and tranquil deposits, containing a complete record of all the new forms of life which were introduced during those ages of oceanic life. And those ages were as a fact long enough to see not only a thick (1300 feet) mass of deposit, but also the first appearance of hundreds of new species. These are all as definite and distinct from each other as are existing species. No less than 1850 new species have been counted, all of them suddenly born, all of them lasting only for a time, and all of them in their turn superseded by still newer forms. There is no sign of mixture or of confusion, or of infinitesimal, or of intermediate variations. These 'Medals of Creation' are all, each of them, struck by a new die, which never failed to impress itself on the plastic materials of this truly creative work." Could it be shown that but only one species originated otherwise than by slight modification of the structure of pre-existent species, that would suffice to overthrow the theory of Evolution. But the science of paleontology presents us with clear evidences of thousands of species coming suddenly into existence; and on the other hand there is not the faintest indication that there was ever a species that came into being in any other way. We have, therefore, found that what evolutionists put forward as the strongest proofs of their theoryEmbryology and Paleontology-yield, when closely examined, convincing, indeed conclusive, evidence against it. |