The Passing of Darwinism
By L. A. S.
Is the famous Darwinian theory so highly exalted by modern “science” dying of old age? This question is justified by indications which are now to be seen in certain scientific quarters in Europe. In Germany, says the Literary Digest, there is among theologians an active discussion of the question whether the days of Darwinism are numbered. A recent article in a German periodical by “the veteran philosopher, Edward von Hartmann,” is entitled “The Passing of Darwinism.” This scientific authority passes judgment upon Darwinism not from a Biblical standpoint at all, but from that of the most modern science purely. He says:— In the sixties of the past century the opposition of the older group of savants to the Darwinian hypothesis was still supreme. In the seventies, the new idea began to gain ground rapidly in all cultured countries. In the eighties, Darwin’s influence was at its height, and exercised an almost absolute control over technical research. In the nineties, for the first time, a few timid expressions of doubt and opposition were heard, and these gradually swelled into a great chorus of voices, aiming at the overthrow of the Darwinian theory. In the first decade of the twentieth century it has become apparent that the days of Darwinism are numbered. Among its latest opponents are such savants as Eimer, Gustav Wolf, De Vries, Hoocke, von Wellstein, Fleischman, Reinke, and many others. “The tombstone inscription for Darwinism,” is this article by Hartmann, writes Professor Zoeckler, of Greifswald University, in a German magazine which recently published a collection of anti-Darwinian views from German naturalists. Edward Hoppe, “the Hamburg savant,” has published a recent brochure declaring that the theory of evolution is not reconcilable with the religious idea. And Professor Fleischman, of Erlangen, summed up a recent course of lectures on “The Darwinian Theory” with this conclusion:— The Darwinian theory of descent has not a single fact to confirm it in the realm of nature. It is not the result of scientific research, but purely the product of the imagination. What Professor Fleischman now says about Darwinism is exactly what Seventh-day Adventists have said all along, while nearly the whole religious world has committed itself to this evolutionary, antichristian theory. Now eminent scientists are repudiating this theory in strong terms, and religious teachers, unless they follow this example, may soon be left in a very ridiculous position. How much better it is to have simple faith in the Word of God, and so be kept from such egregious mistakes. L. A. S.