p. 474 | HIGH-SOUNDING NONSENSE by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 27, 1881

HIGH-SOUNDING NONSENSE.

By Editor

DENTON, the pseudo-professor of geology, was largely patronized in San Francisco. The mass of the people seemed to be delighted with his scientific facts and conclusions. We fear as a general thing they love to be humbugged; we know not how else to account for his success as a professed scientist. In his own estimation he is a very profound man; the wonder is how he impressed so many minds with a willingness to receive him at his own estimate. Such a statement as this was no doubt very pleasing:—

"We can tell the fate of the world by our knowledge of geology, and our world will last for a hundred millions years to come."

What is meant by the expression, "our world will last," is not easy to conceive. Whether it means that it will exist that length of time, or be fit for man's abode that length of time, we have no means to determine. In either case it is an absurd statement. Were we to grant his extravagant claims to knowledge of the length of time of its past existence, it would by no means follow that he could determine its future. Could we know that the same forces would operate in the same manner a million years hence that they have in some period in the past, we could not know that they would produce the same results in the same length of time under the modifying influence of different circumstances. There are more improbabilities in his calculations than he has given years for its consummation.

We have no faith in, and but little patience with, such idle speculations, fully believing that this earth will abide forever. It was made, not to pass through countless ages of darkness, but as a habitation for man; and the divine plan will not be frustrated. The incorrigibility of man on probation may interfere with the desired end, but cannot prevent it; as probation will have an end. Our conclusions are not speculations drawn from "cunningly devised fables," but are based on the "sure word of prophecy," which never has failed, and never can fail.

In prognosticating the future of the world, Denton said:—

"When the oceans have dwindled to ponds, and the rivers to rills, and the air is so light that it will hardly support the wing of the bird, and when men have to sink deep wells for water, and are compelled to dwell in caves owing to the constant falling of rocks, look out."

Oh, yes, we promise to look out, if we shall dare to put our head to look, in the midst of such a scientific muddle of mundane materials. But there is a more hopeful outlook than this. Hear:—

"I believe the atmosphere of the globe will improve and be more favorable in the future than it is at present, and where there is one man and woman now there will be a hundred men and women. You say we can't do anything with an earthquake, but I believe the time will come when we shall harness the earthquake to our car of progress. The time will come when man will rule the planet, and what he don't want to stay he will throw out. Where man goes the animals depart, and we will do the same with every kind of vermin, only give us time."

There are well-grounded fears that you will never have the time. Archimedes proposed to move the world if only a fulcrum were supplied on which to work the lever. And the difficulty of finding the fulcrum caused those interested in the enterprise to overlook the question of the length of lever required, or of the weight necessary to move one of such length as might be obtained. So in Denton's asking; the factor of "time" will be so important in the consideration that the question of ability will be entirely overlooked. At least we think it was quite forgotten by his "large and appreciative audience."

Will somebody explain to us why this senseless twaddle uttered by Denton is called a scientific lecture? We should locate it in 2 Pet. 2 : 18, 19:—

"For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption."

Such is Denton and his fraternity. He thinks it a wise thing to speak against the Bible, but forgets that the Bible was written with more than human foresight, and it denounced him many years ago.