Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 29, 1908

_The Result of Evolution_

While some are deluding themselves with the false hope that the world is growing better, there are others whose eyes have been opened to see more clearly the exact state of affairs. An editorial writer in the Watchman (Boston) makes this statement:—

Any one who has carefully watched the trend of social life for the last forty years will be compelled to admit that the standard of morals in society has been constantly falling.

When seeking for an explanation of this change, the writer charges the responsibility upon the doctrine of evolution. In support of his view, he says:—

As the fundamental principles of evolution have permeated through all classes of society, men and women have been glad to accept the idea that they are the products of antecedent causes, and are therefore not morally responsible for themselves or their deeds or their future. If they have occasionally a little solicitude about the latter, they take refuge in an indefinite idea of “the larger hope” that “somehow good will be the final goal of ill.” Themselves and their actions being, therefore, determined by the evolutionary action of forces with which they have nothing to do, and their future being wrapped in a shining mist, they give themselves up to pleasure as the chief good. They dismiss the sense of responsibility, throwing it upon the forces which evolved them, and leave their future to be determined by the same forces which produced them.

The doctrine of evolution is more than a mere theory. It is a mighty factor in determining the beliefs and the conduct of man. One who accepts this teaching must inevitably abandon belief in a personal God as the creator and upholder of all things, to whom he is responsible, and by whom he will be judged, and must just as surely lose the sense of personal responsibility for his course of action, and must regard himself as borne along by the great Tendency, without the power to shape his own destiny or to prevent results which must be the outcome of unchanging laws. Evolution is utterly irreconcilable with the teachings of the Scriptures concerning man’s origin and destiny; and one who believes in evolution will be compelled to discredit the gospel of Christ.