p. 637 | EVOLUTION AND ANARCHY by A. J. B.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 1, 1901

EVOLUTION AND ANARCHY.

By A. J. B.

HE who makes the Bible his rule of faith and practice cannot believe in the theory of evolution, nor become an anarchist. But nowadays it is exceedingly difficult to find people who have a living faith in the Bible, the sort of belief that leads to action. The majority of people pretend to believe in evolution, but would not for an instant be willing to acknowledge that in so doing they are to any degree fostering the foundation-principles of anarchy. Evolution and anarchy are not so far separated as many suppose. They belong to the same family, and should be banished from the mind of mankind. Both are opposed to law. Evolution would divorce God and His creative power and laws from the making of this world. Anarchy would banish and uproot the laws of man and the fundamentals of society.

Instead of believing the Bible record of creation, found in Genesis: that God made a perfect earth and a perfect man and woman at the beginning, evolutionists pretend to be able to show how “all the species of living things can evolve, not only their eyes, but their legs and wings and lungs, and every part of them from a little bit of primeval life stuff, called protoplasm, by the influence of Natural Selection.” According to evolutionists the ancestors of men were monkeys. For, says Mr. Darwin: “The early progenitors of man were no doubt once covered with hair, both sexes having beards; their ears were pointed and capable of movement; and their bodies were provided with a tail having the proper muscles. The foot, judging from the condition of the great toe in the fetus, was then prehensile, and our progenitors, no doubt, were arborial in their habits, frequenting some warm forest-clad land. The males were provided with great canine teeth, which served them as formidable weapons.” He then continues his assertions to the effect that this kind of animal from which man has sprung, “if seen by a naturalist, would undoubtedly have been ranked as an ape or a monkey. And as man, under a genealogical point of view, belongs to the Catarrhine, or Old World, stock (of monkeys), we must conclude, however much the conclusion may revolt our pride, that our early progenitors would have been properly thus designated.” Then, to cap his nonsensical climax, he says: “Thus we have given to man a pedigree of prodigious length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality.”

Such is the stuff taught daily in the great colleges and universities of this and other lands. The so-called men of science occupying the professorial chairs of these institutions go to their wits’ ends in the vain endeavor to crowd God out of the scheme of creation. They rack their brains to try to prove that the original spark of life originated itself—that God had nothing to do with it. Of course, some evolutionists who pretend to be Christians as well, admit that possibly God did create the protoplasm from which all life has come. But, to ask these simpletons to explain why it is any harder for the Creator to make a perfect man at the first stroke, is to annihilate their argument. Their reasoning is about as logical as that of the ancients, who said that the earth rested upon the shoulders of Atlas. When asked upon what Atlas stood, they said his feet were planted upon a turtle. But when asked where the turtle stood, they had sense enough to acknowledge the fallacy of their arguments.

Nothing but the evolution theory is tolerated in the university class-room. The student who believes the plain, unvarnished story of creation, as found in the Word, is frowned out of a hearing. For example, not long ago the following instance was related to the writer by a friend, a graduate of the University of Michigan: Professor Worcester, a member of the Philippine Commission, was conducting a class in biology. He finally asked the question: “Where did life originate?” One of the students (not an Adventist) who was a believer in the Bible, promptly spoke up and said that he believed that life was the result of a direct act of creation on the part of God. The professor immediately looked up, and “with fire flashing from his eyes,” told the student who thus responded that he might stay after class and discuss that subject. Of course, this instance is but one of many, and serves to show the atheistic tendency of modern popular education and the great need that exists for schools where God-fearing and Bible-loving parents can send their children without fear.

What has all this to do with anarchy?—Simply this: Evolution teaches disrespect for God, for His laws, and hence, for all laws in general. Anarchy is like unto it, teaching total disrespect for all human laws, and also for such of God’s laws as relate to marriage and other sacred institutions. Every seed of evolution planted is also a seed of anarchy. By shutting out the great Lawmaker, evolution also shuts out the laws of the great Lawmaker. Anarchy, in striking at the last six commandments of the law of God,—those relating to man’s conduct toward his fellow beings,—strikes at the whole decalogue and at its Author. In this respect, therefore, evolution and anarchy are alike. To teach one is to assist the other. The Bible prohibits both. Evolution strikes at that portion of the Fourth Commandment which says: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.” But Christ divided the decalogue into just two parts (Matt. 22: 37-40), and thus expressed the essence of the whole law:—

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Evolution would do away with the first four commandments. Anarchy would do away with the last six. But, since the law is all one, he who strikes at one part also strikes at all parts of the same. Therefore both evolutionists and anarchists are at war with the Law of God. And, since that Law is but the expression of God’s character, it must be concluded that believers in either theory are fighting against God.

A. J. B.