Straton. the Fancies of the Evolutionists (1926)

7/26/2019 Straton. the Fancies of the Evolutionists (1926)

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THE FANCIES OF THE EVOLUTIONISTS

JOHN R OAC H S TR ATON

TN this paper thewell known - ^ | H E assertion th at evolution is

pastor of Calvary Baptist ^ ^.w " a r r e n f e H " h v a l l r ea l

Church in New York City main- " W , ^ C C e p te a D y a U r e a l

tains that in view ofthefact that a K J S i scholars IS Wide of the m ark.

very large number of intelligent

Th ere is a general acceptanc e, in th e

people believe the theoryofevolution p h i l o s o p h i c f i el d , o f s o m e S O rt o f

to be whollyunproved tt ts only fair f . . f ^ , . , ,

that a public

institution,

receiving principle of development or unfold-

support

from

publicfunds,

such as ment, which is fully as compatible

the American Mu seum of Natural ^^^^

c r e a t i o n i s m aS w i t h e v o l u t j o n -

Htstory, should gtve space to an . , y /

exhibit

of ne

Bible Story

of

is^ , but any universal acceptance of

Creation

in its Hall

of

the Age of evolution, in the Strict Sense, either

Man.

Dr.Straton describes

inde-

i whole or in any of its branches, has

tail the exhibit which headvocates.

_ . . i ,

.. T> \

:

simply not come about. Real scien

tific facts hav e nev er yet been br ou gh t toge ther sufficient to pro ve

the theories of organic evolution in a single one of its many

branches, let alone the main theory that all life has so arisen.

Furthermore, i t is s ignificant that many who at first are

fascinated by the plausible generalizations of evolution turn

from it after further examination of its profi^ered evidences and

more mature consideration of i ts claims. Disil lusionment came

to the present writer when he discovered that evolution is not a

fact of science, bu t a dog ma of philosop hy; th at bo th its histo ry

and i ts essential nature prove that i t belongs in the realm of

subjective speculation and not in the field of objective fact.

Let us undertake, first , a frank consideration of The Hall of

the Age of M an in the Am erican M useum of N atu ra l His tory in

New York City. This is the great popular feature of the museum

and the especial interest of Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, the presi

dent of the museum, and of others of the

staff.

Yet the exhibit is

schematized and doctored to the last degree. The old bones there

are made to say things which ordinarily they would not say

at all.

In the introduction to his book describing this exhibit Professor

Osborn uses the following words:

The Hall of the Age of Man is designed to show what we

know

of man and his environment during the long period of geologic time in


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246 T H E F O R U M

which man rose from a coridition of limited intelligence and subordi

nation to the animal world, to his present condition of great intelli

gence and mastery both of the animal world, and of many of the

principal forces of nature. The exhibit is arranged in an educational

manner so as to present very simply, very

truthfully^

and very

clearly

our

actual knowledge,

and no t to confuse th e visitor with

theories or speculations. (The italics are mine.)

Notice his str iking statement that they are going to show only

what they

know

of man, that they are giving in The Hall of

the Age of Man "ac tua l knowledge" and not " theor ies or

specula t ions" .

Now, what is the t ruth about tha t exhibi t? The bald naked

truth is that there is not one single, indisputable/ec^ proving the

truthfulness of the exhibit . The so-called "ape-men" in the

exhibit are figments of the enthusiastic imaginations of evolu

t ion 's devotees . T he "P i l tdo w n M a n " , for example , was no

" m a n " at all . All th at was found in the gravel pit in Sussex,

England, near Piltdown Common, included two or three bits of

skull-bone, a piece of jaw -bo ne, and a canine too th. Th ese frag

ments were scattered in the gravel pit; one piece was picked up

one year, another in another year, and sti l l another the third

year. With these few little scraps, that one could conceal in the

palms of the hands, the scientists first assumed that they all

belonged to the same individual , and then they "reconstructed"

the "P i l tdo w n M a n " and proclaimed i t as a new genus, which

they ca l led Eonthropus or "Dawn Man" .

But after the f irst reconstruction by Dawson and Dr. A. Smith-

Woodward of the Bri t ish Museum, Professor Arthur Keith ,

Curator of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, took up

these same fragments of bone and made a reconstructed man

much higher than the ape-like creature which Dr. Dawson and

Dr. Woodward had produced. The c l imax was capped when the

American anthropologist Dr. Ales Hrdlicka reached the conclu

sion that the Pi l tdown jaw and tooth did not belong with the

fragments of skull but really "belonged to a fossil chimpanzee."

Yet, in the face of all this, the exhibit in the Hall of the Age of

M an is para ded as bona fide; as founded only on rea l " fa c ts "

and not on "specula t ion". I f tha t Pi l tdown Man, reconstructed

from such little scraps gathered in such a haphazard fashion, and

the subject of such divisions and disputes among the scientists


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T H E F A N C I E S O F T H E E V O L U T I O N I S T S 247

themselves , if tha t i s no t a "s pe cu lat ion " , then I wa nt to ask

what under Heaven is i t?

The first page of Professor Osborn 's book, on the Hall of the

Age of M an , pictures three of these ima ginary m en w hich hav e

been "reconstructed" by the scient is ts f rom data so meagre that

it has been, from the beginning, the subject of the widest division

among the scientists and is s t i l l being hotly debated. Yet Pro

fessor Osborn, under these three pictures of the Java or Trinil

Ape-Man , the Neander tha l Man , and the Cro-Magnon Man ,

labe ls them "Three Grea t

Races

of Prehis tor ic M a n " . Th is

sounds as though they were all fully accredited and as though

everything were adequately proved.

L et us glance at one of these specimens, T h e Trinil Ape-

Man. Dr. Eugene Dubois , a Dutch physician , c la ims to have

found these bones in th e Island of Ja v a in 1891. Th ere are only

three fragments of this gentleman, who has been given the name

"Pi thecanthropus" . There is a part of a skul l , a part of a leg

bone, and one molar tooth . As with the Pi l tdown Man, these

bones were no t found at th e same t im e or al togeth er in one place.

When Dr. Dubois discovered these pit iful bits of bones he

announced his belief that they belonged to a being between the

apes and men. Other scientists who examined these bones

asserted, however, th at the fragments did not belong to the sam e

individual at all.

Concerning the Neanderthal Man and the Cro-Magnon man,

it is sufficient to say that many conflicting opinions have been

given their bones by such men as Blake, Vogt, Hoelder, Kitdell ,

H uxley, Dw ight , Price , and others . I t can be shown, fur thermore,

that the scientists not only disagree among themselves, but that

Professor Osborn contradicts in one place his own statements in

another place. Upon this same first page of his book is a para

graph w hich admits th at the evidence is scan ty and th at the

remains of al leged ape-men are scarce. He writes:

A series of cases in the centre of the hall are devoted to the story

of man. That i t can be compressed into so small a space is an indi

cation of the scarcity of his remains, for here are displayed repro

ductions of the m ost notab le specimens th at ha ve been discovered.

And further on in the same work he refers again to the fact that

" the actual specimens are few in number."


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248 T H F O R U M

In ano ther of his books, th at on Evolution and Religion^

Professor Osbo rn says th is :

The chain of human ancestors was totally unknown to Darwin.

He could not have even dreamed of such a flood of proof and tru th .

In one of the books the evidence is admitted to be "scarce"

and the specimens "few". In another, this same evidence is

referred to as a " flood "

In addition to the utter inadequacy of these individual ex

hib its in the H all of the Age of Ma n stan d th e very significant

facts that the dependabili ty of the entire scheme of rock strati

fication, upon which the time element and transformist principles

of man's alleged evolution rest, is now being seriously and suc

cessfully called into question and even dismissed as entirely

artificial and arbitrary by qualified scientific men.

Yet these unproved theories are being used to-day to lead our

children away from the Bible revelation. The mere statement of

the real facts in the case shows how absurd is the alleged "evi

dence" on which the faith of our children in the Bible account of

creat ion is be ing destroyed. During the many vis i ts tha t I have

made to the American Museum of Natura l History I have seen

literally thousands of school children pass through the Hall of

the Age of Man and look at the exhibits of those old bones with

the re-creations of alleged "m e n " . In watchin g them , I was

overwhelmed with the conviction that i t was nothing short of a

crime against the human race to f i l l the immature minds of these

little children with the debasing idea of the brute origin of man

on such flimsy and tr icky "evidences."

In the l ight of all this, I submit that i t was not at all an un

reasonable request when I suggested to the museum authorities

th a t they roll all of th e show-cases contain ing these gruesom e old

bones to one side of the Hall and put on the other side another

row of show-cases setting forth the Bible teaching concerning the

creation of the world and man and the Bible philosophy of life.

Certainly if one of these conflicting and competing theories is to

be shown in the form of an exhibit, then the other ought in fair

ness to be shown also.

I suggested that at the centre of the first show-case of the

Bible exhibit there might be an open Bible, with a red line and a


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T H E F A N C I E S O F T H E E V O L U T I O N I S T S 249

hand pointing (after the manner of the marking of the old bones)

to the first verse of Genesis:

In the beginning, God created the

heavens and the earth.

Th en I suggested t ha t , on either side of

that central Bible, there might be reproductions of the historic

manuscripts and versions of God's word, thus giving an outl ine

history of how the Bible came down to us.

In the next show-case, I suggested that there should be another

Bible in the centre, with a red l ine and a hand pointing to the

verse where i t is writ ten that

God created man in His image, in

the image of God

created

He him, male and emale

created

He them.

On either side of this Bible, there might be grouped an exhibit

sett ing forth the original dignity of m an as a child of Go d and the

tragic disasters that came to him through his disobedience to

God; his fall from his high estate, and, therefore, his need of a

Messiah and Saviour. I suggested, also, that the teaching of

Genesis concerning God's rest in the creative era and the insti

tution of the Sabbath Day could be indicated with a proper

exhibit showing the great economic, social, and religious value of

reserving one day in seven for rest and worship.

In the next case, I suggested that a Bible-be shown with the

words marked which tell of Eve being given to Adam as his wife,

and which declares: Therefore shall a man leave his father and

mother and shall cleaveunto his w ife and they shall be one flesh."

On one side of this Bible could be shown a picture of the marriage

alta r a nd models of homes, sett ing forth the fact th at th e

Bible teaching h as been the source of the sanc ti ty of the ma rriage

vow and the foundation of our American home-life. On the other

side of this case could be shown an exhibit of the terrible increase

of divorce, the wrecking of home-life, the breaking of hearts, the

sett ing adrift of l i t t le children without anyone to guide them

upo n the sto rm y seas of hum an life, all this because of loss

of faith in the Bible and in its teachings.

I suggested, also, an exhibit of the Bible as the real source of

the principles of l iberty, equali ty, justice, fraternity, law and

order upon which our American commonwealth was founded.

I suggested that a replica of the historic Bible of the United States

Supreme Court , on which our Presidents have been sworn since

1801, be used in this exhibit , and th a t this Bible be opened a t the

Ten Commandments ; that a p icture be shown of the scene in the


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250 T H E F O R U M

cabin of the Mayflower, where the Pilgrims drafted the First

Charter of their new community with nothing but an open Bible

before them, embodying i ts principles in their document; that an

exhibit be prepared showing the influence of Bible religion in the

Revolutionary War, in the prayer-l ife of George Washington, in

the resolutions of the Continental Congress, in the meetings of

the C onsti tution al Con vention, and in the whole progress of our

history , through the pray ers of A bra ham Lincoln in the Civil

War t imes to the avowed dependence upon God of Woodrow

Wilson during the troublous days of the World War, down to

this pr ese nt hou r whe n the re is still enoug h faith left in ou r

beloved land to engrave upon our coins the great motto: "In

God we t rus t . "

And over against the portrait gallery of the "cave men", I

would suggest that at least one wall of the Hall of the Age of

Man be given to a series of portraits of some of the great men and

women who accepted and believed the Bible. Such a series would

begin, naturally, with a picture of Moses, beneath which could

be printed these striking words:

K e e p , therefore, the words of this coven ant, and do the m , th a t

ye may prosper in al l that ye do. (Deut. 29:9)

And then I would suggest a picture of Paul, who said:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.

And Martin Luther, who took his stand on the open Bible,

and said:

I stand here; I cannot do otherwise; God help me, Amen.

And Queen Victoria, who said:

T he op en Bible is the secret of the gre atness of th e British

Empi re .

And Keppler, who said, in connection with his great discoveries

in as t ronomy:

I have been thinking God's thoughts after Him.

And Daniel Webster, who said:

I believe th a t t he Bible is to be unde rstood and received in the

plain and obvious meaning of i ts passages; for I cannot persuade

myself th at a book inte nde d for the instru ction and conversion of th e

whole world should cover i ts true meaning in any such mystery and

doubt none but cri t ics and philosophers can discover i t .


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SANCTA 251

And President Coolidge who said:

Religion is the foundation of states.

And in the centre, and above it all, there should be a picture of

the Divine Chris t , wi th His prayer to the Father:

Sanct i fy them through the t ru th , Thy Word is Truth .

I contentmyself in closing, with pointing out that while these

fancies of the evolutionists come and go, while there is scarcely a

scientific book that is ten years old that is not already out of date,

the Bible, after all these thousands of years, is still doing business

at the o ld s tand

Measured by i ts age-long and continuing influence upon the

habits and faiths of the human race, the remark of Jean Paul is

well founded. He said:

The first leaf of the Mosaic record outweighs all the folios of the

philosophers and men of science combined.

S A N C T A

H fijHROUGH endless change the record runs

* ^ Confused by all succeeding suns.

"Our Lord was r ich; our Lord was poor;

In meekness bowed; in state secure."

And so our life is glibly shriven

And dul l ear th r immed by a bas tard Heaven.

But rich or poor are still but one

And high and low are scarce begun.

While you and I must seek alone

The rugged path to the ancient throne.

Herbert H. Longfellow

Documents

Straton. the Fancies of the Evolutionists (1926)