SLIGHTLY SARCASTIC

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 15, 1882

SLIGHTLY SARCASTIC.

A correspondent of the Christian Intelligencer has a new theory of creation: "Mr. Darwin has discovered that earth worms bring to the surface from seven to eighteen tons of mold per acre annually; and this spread out evenly would produce in every ten years a layer of soil of from one to more than two inches thick. Suppose the layer to be only one inch thick. At this rate in 120 years the worms could raise the soil one foot; and in 633,600 years they would raise it one mile; and in 2,500,000,000 years they would raise the surface 4,000 miles—about the distance of the surface of the earth from its center. My hypothesis is that this earth was made by earth worms in the period mentioned. Of course the number of workers increased as the surface and room for working grew larger; so we may go back in the history of our planet and find it a mere lump of earth, and upon it a pair of worms at work. Whence the worms came, and where they got the lump of earth, are not explained by the hypothesis, which starts after they began their work. But every other hypothesis of creation also starts after the beginning, except the Bible account, which is by many regarded as more than a hypothesis. Other theories of creation have their difficulties; so has the one presented. To an unscientific mind, its difficulties seem little, if any, greater than those in the way of others that are celebrated. But this has advantages that should at once commend it to persons who are not satisfied with the Scriptural account; it is simple; it is built up with mathematical accuracy; it is based on facts, and, best of all, it is founded on the latest scientific discoveries."