Science, Falsely so Called.
By A. Smith
WAS the earth, at the time of its creation, thrown in a molten state from the surface of the sun like a drop of water from a swiftly revolving grindstone? Did it occupy ages in cooling from the surface inward, developing animal and vegetable life in a continually ascending scale, until it reached its maximum density and corresponding organic development? Did this cooling process extend no further than to form a thin incrustation of terra firma over the earth, comparing in thickness with the interior as the rind of an orange to its pulp? And are volcanoes and earthquakes simply the gushings forth of the intermundane fires, roused into action by stellar influence or subterranean gripings? To the first question we oppose the fact, that, since inertia is a property of all bodies, motion must have originated with an uncreated, infinite intelligence—God. And, since he has power to originate, he has also power to check or alter such motion, or originate a new order of things, at any time, to subserve his righteous will. See Josh. 10:13; 2 Kings 20:8–11. Such direct interposition, may, at least, have been the case at the creation of our world; but some men have become satisfied from experiments made with causing mercury to revolve swiftly round a disc on the surface of a basin of oil, that such was not the case; and hence the Bible account of creation is ignored, thinking that they understand better the principles upon which worlds and systems were created. If the molten hypothesis be correct, when our seething mundane drop flew off in a tangent from the solar grindstone, it must have drawn after it an immense train of vapor or steam, which, condensing, formed the waters on the surface of the earth. Whence the germs of plants and animals in this seething void? A few experiments with distilled water in a close vessel elucidates the question in the minds of some. But we leave this part of the subject in the labyrinth, where we found it, and turn with relief to the divine record in Gen. 1:6–12, 20–22. Was animal life developed in a continually ascending scale? If so, pride is unbecoming a race whose progenitors were baboons; and it is not a consoling thought that the law of development may so change as to evolve a race of beings so superior to us that they will carry us about the country in cages, as we do the monkey, to amuse the gaping crowd with our antics and unintelligible jargon. I am not overdrawing the picture if such illustrations as that of the tadpole and mosquito, and of the multiplying machine, made use of by naturalists, be pertinent. Are the so-called central fires covered by only a thin incrustation of terra firma? Since experiments are in order, we will make use of one to elucidate the question. Form a hollow ball of earth the size of an orange, with the pulp entirely removed. Hold this ball in your hand, and let me fill it, through an aperture, with molten iron. But you draw back, in evident distrust of the non-conducting properties of your ball. Query: How long could animal or vegetable life exist upon the surface of a ball like our earth, if filled with raging fire? Whence, then, came volcanoes and earthquakes? At the time of the flood, trees and plants of giant growth, land and marine animals, were piled together, and covered by an Almighty hand, and kept in store for the last generation, to warm and light their dwellings, to speed the wings of commerce, and to serve as an engine of wrath to depopulate the earth, at last, of its wicked inhabitants. Fire, doubtless, first caught in some outcropping coal strata (the recent burning of Fort Pillow is an example), and has ever since been extending, producing volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, in a continually increasing ratio, and muttering warnings of the impending day of wrath. Fire, in the coal strata, would, from time to time, come in contact with calcareous rock, converting it into lime, and as the earth abounds with streams of water, the fire, in its steady, onward course, would intersect them, turning their courses into the heated void, when, converted into steam, lashed into madness by the slacking lime, and all beneath, instead of a yielding liquid mass, being firm as the everlasting rocks, the mighty power thus gendered would be exerted in the direction of the least resistance, or toward the surface, causing an earthquake or volcanic eruption; or, in lieu of water, inflammable gases or oil might gender a power equally irresistible. If the molten hypothesis be correct, might we not confidently look for constantly diminishing volcanic manifestations, or, at least, if the cooling process had long since reached an equilibrium, should we not look for such demonstrations to occur with considerable regularity? But what are the facts in the case? Since earthquakes and volcanic eruptions first attracted the attention of man to the present day, they have occurred in frequency and power, in a continually increasing ratio. And what, it may be asked, with a nervous foreboding of some impending calamity, will culminate these wrathful demonstrations? Even that which is predicted in the word of God, and of which the fate of Sodom is given as an example, but of which men, blinded by philosophy and vain deceit, are willingly ignorant. See 2 Pet. 3:5–7; Jude 7. As in the former creation, so also in the destruction and new creation of our earth and heaven, unbelief respecting any special divine interposition is and will be indulged by the same class, until the realities of that awful day shall reveal the fact that their opportunity to escape is forever lost. The Bible abounds in solemn warnings of the impending day of wrath; but that only which closes the stupendous drama have we space to notice. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which, the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Pet. 3:10. The elements, air and water, are composed of certain gases: air, of oxygen and nitrogen; water, of oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen gas, when confined in an inverted open vessel, and ignited, will burn at the surface, but if the vessel be turned up, the gas will escape in a volume of flame. Oxygen gas is so inflammable that iron or steel will burn in it with a light too intense for human sight to endure. It is an abundant supply of this gas that gives such intense heat to the blacksmith’s forge. The sudden decomposition of water is attended with a great noise; that of a single drop being equal to the report of a pistol. Electricity is a fluid largely pervading all nature, its positive and negative principles appearing in nearly every object of which we can form a conception. It is more subtle than air, executing its office with the rapidity of flashes of light. It is that which glows in the sun, and, without doubt, tints the flower of the field, that flashes destruction from the bosom of the storm cloud, and to which the booming thunder bears a tribute of majestic power. This is the agency that may possibly be made use of by the Creator in the decomposition of the elements. But who shall dwell with the devouring fire? Isaiah replies in hope-inspiring terms, “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.” When the fires shall have expended their force in the destruction of that which the hand of sin and unbelief has polluted, “We, according to his promise,” says Peter, “look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” and where we believe there will be no philosophers to speculate upon the (to them) impossibilities of the divine record of the past.