Posted on 12/09/2008 5:42:25 AM PST by Ethan Clive Osgoode
This is from the Afterword of "The Case Against Evolution" by George O'Toole. He was a professor of theology and philosophy and also professor of animal biology at Seton Hill College.
Against Evolution
From The Case Against Evolution (1926), afterword. (Abridged)
George Barry O'Toole
With the close of the nineteenth century the hour hand of biological science had completed another revolution. One after another, the classic systems of evolution had passed into the discard, as its remorseless progress registered their doom. The last of these systems, De-Vriesianism, enjoyed a meteoric vogue in the first years of the present century, but it, too, has gone into eclipse with the rise of rediscovered Mendelism. Notwithstanding all these reverses, however, the evolutionary theory still continues to number a host of steadfast adherents.
Some of its partisans uphold it upon antiquated grounds. Culturally speaking, such men still live in the days of Darwin, and fail to realize that much water has passed under the bridge since then. It has other protagonists, however, who are thoroughly conversant with modern data, and fully aware, in consequence, of the inadequacy of all existent formulations of the evolutional hypothesis. Minds of the latter type are proof, apparently, against any sort of disillusionment, and it is manifest that their attitude is determined by some consideration other than the actual results of research.
This other consideration is monistic metaphysics [1]. In defect of factual confirmation, evolution is demonstrated aprioristically from the principle of the minimum. The scope of this methodological principle is to simplify or unify causation by dispensing with all that is superfluous in the way of explanation. In olden days, it went by the name of Occam's Razor and was worded thus: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem -- "Things are not to be multiplied without necessity." Evolution meets the requirements of this principle. It simplifies the problem of organic origins by reducing the number of ancestors to a minimum. Therefore, argues the evolutionist, evolution must be true.
As an empirical rule, the principle of the minimum is, no doubt, essential to the scientific method. To erect it into a metaphysical axiom, however, is preposterous; for simple explanations are not necessarily true explanations.
In the role of aprioristic metaphysics, the principle of continuity is destructive, and tends to plane down everything to the dead level of materialistic monism. To assert continuity, they are driven to deny, or, at least, to leave unexplained and inexplicable, the obvious novelty that emerges at each higher level of the cosmic scale. And thus it comes to pass that intelligence is pronounced to be nothing but sense, and sense to be nothing but physiology, and physiology to be nothing but chemistry, and chemistry to be nothing but mechanics, until this philosophical nihilism weeps at last for want of further opportunities of devastation. Its exponents have an intense horror for abrupt transitions.
Evolution smooths the path for monism of this type by transforming nature's staircase into an inclined plane of imperceptible ascent. Hence Dewey [2] refers to evolution as a "clinching proof" of the continuity hypothecated by the monist. For the latter, there is no hierarchy of values, and all essential distinctions are abolished; for him nothing is unique and everything is equally important. He afirms the democracy of facts and is blind to all perspective in nature. He is, in short, the enemy of all beauty, all spirituality, all culture, all morality, and all religion. He substitutes neurons for the soul, and enthrones Natural Selection in the place of the Creator. He sets up, in a word, the ideal of "an animalistic man and a mechanistic universe," and offers us evolution as a demonstration of this "ideal."
Vernon Kellogg [3] objects to our indictment. "The evolutionist," he says, "does not like being called a bad man. He does not like being posted as an enemy of poetry and faith and religion. He does not like being defined as crassly materialist, a man exclusively of the earth." (Atlantic Monthly, April 24, 1924, p. 490.) Apart from their object, the likes or dislikes of an evolutionist are a matter of indifference. What we want to know is whether his dislike is merely for the names, or whether it extends to the reality denoted by these names. Human nature has a weakness for euphemisms. Men may "want the game without the name," particularly when, deservedly or undeservedly, the name happens to have an offensive connotation. [4]
There are, no doubt, evolutionists who mingle enough dualism with their philosophy to mitigate the most objectionable aspects of its basic monism. In so doing, however, they are governed by considerations that are wholly extraneous to evolutionary thought. Indeed, if we take Kellogg's words at their face value (that is, in a sense which he would probably disclaim), it is in spite of his philosophy that the evolutionist is a spiritualist. "And just as religion and cheating," reasons Kellogg, "can apparently be compassed in one man, so can one man be both evolutionist and idealist." (Loc. cit., p. 490.) If this comparison holds true, the evolutionist can be an idealist only to the extent that he is inconsistent or hypocritical, since under no other supposition could piety and crime coexist in one and the same person.
Be that as it may, the majority of evolutionists are avowed mechanists and materialists, in all that concerns the explanation of natural phenomena. "That there may be God who has put his Spirit into men" (Kellogg, ibid., p. 491), they are condescendingly willing to concede. And small credit to them for this; for who can disprove the existence of God, or the spirituality of the human soul? Nevertheless, it is impossible, they maintain, to be certain on these subjects. Natural science is in their eyes the only form of human knowledge that has any objective validity. Proofs of human spirituality they denounce as metaphysical, and metaphysics is for them synonymous with "such stuff as dreams are made of," unworthy to be mentioned in the same breath with physical science.
In practice, therefore, if not in theory, the tendency of evolution has been to unspiritualize and dereligionize the philosophy of its adherents, a tendency which is strikingly exemplified in one of its greatest exponents, Charles Darwin himself. The English naturalist began his scientific career as a theist and a spiritualist. He ended it as an agnostic and a materialist. His evolutionary philosophy was, by his own confession, responsible for the transformation. "When thus reflecting," he says,
"I feel compelled to look to a first cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man, and I deserve to be called a Theist. This conclusion was strong in my mind about the time, as far as I remember, when I wrote the 'Origin of Species'; and it is since that time that it has very gradually, with many fluctuations, become weaker. But then arises the doubt, can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe, been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animals, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions? I can not pretend to throw the least light on such abstruse problems. The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I, for one, must be content to remain an Agnostic." ("The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," edited by Francis Darwin, 1887, vol. I, p. 282.)Darwin likewise exemplifies in his own person the destructive influence exercised upon the aesthetic sense by exclusive adherence to the monistic viewpoint. Having alluded in his autobiography to his former predilection for poetry, music, and the beauties of nature, he continues as follows:
"But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found that it nauseated me. I have also lost my taste for pictures and music... I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did... My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts... if I had to live my life again, I would have made it a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would have been kept alive through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature." (Op. cit., vol. I, pp. 81, 82.)Evolution, we repeat, has brought us materialistic monism, in whose barren soil nor faith, nor idealism, nor morality, nor poesy, nor art, nor any of the finer things of life can thrive. To its dystelic and atomistic view, Nature has ceased to be the vicar of God, and material things are no longer sacramental symbols of eternal verities. It denies all design in Nature, and dismembers all beauty into meaningless fragments. It is so deeply engrossed in the contemplation of parts, that it has forgotten that there is any such thing as a whole. The rose and the bird-of-paradise are not ineffable messages from God to man; they are but accidental aggregates of colloidal molecules fortuitously assembled in the perpetual, yet aimless, flux of evolving matter.
From the standpoint of the moral and sociological consequences, however, the gravest count against evolution is the seeming support which this theory has given to the monistic conception of an animalistic man. Darwin's doctrine on the bestial origin of man brought no other gain to natural science than the addition of one more unverified and unverifiable hypothesis to its already extensive stock of unfounded speculations. It did, however, work irreparable harm to millions of unlearned and credulous persons, whose childlike confidence the unscrupulous expounders of this doctrine have not hesitated to abuse. The exaggerations and misrepresentations of the latter met with an all too ready credence on the part of those who were not competent to discriminate between theory and fact. The sequel has been a wholesale abandonment of religious and moral convictions, which has ruined the lives and blighted the happiness of countless victims.
Has it been worth while, we may well ask of the propounders of this theory, to sacrifice so much in exchange for so little? The solid gain to natural science has been negligible, but the consequences of the blow unfairly dealt to morals and religion are incalculable and beyond the possibility of repair. "Morals and Religion," says Newman,
"are not represented to the intelligence of the world by intimations and notices strong and obvious such as those which are the foundation of physical science... Instead of being obtruded on our notice, so that we cannot possibly overlook them, they are the dictates either of Conscience or of Faith. They are faint shadows and tracings, certain indeed, but delicate, fragile, and almost evanescent, which the mind recognizes at one time, not at another, discerns when it is calm, loses when it is in agitation. The reflection of sky and mountains in the lake is proof that sky and mountains are around it, but the twilight or the mist or the sudden thunderstorm hurries away the beautiful image, which leaves behind it no memorial of what it was... How easily can we be talked out of our clearest views of duty; how does this or that moral precept crumble into nothing when we rudely handle it! How does the fear of sin pass off from us, as quickly as the glow of modesty dies away from the countenance! and then we say 'It is all superstition.' However, after a time, we look around, and then to our surprise we see, as before, the same law of duty, the same moral precepts, the same protest against sin, appearing over against us, in their old places, as if they had never been brushed away, like the Divine handwriting upon the wall at the banquet." ("Idea of a University," pp. 513-515.)Had evolutionary enthusiasts adhered more strictly to the facts, had they proceeded in the spirit of scientific caution, had they shown, in fact, even so much as a common regard for the simple truth, the "progress of science" would not have been achieved at the expense of morals and religion. As it is, this so-called progress has left behind a wake of destruction in the shape of undermined convictions, blasted lives, crimes, misery, despair, and suicide. It has, in short, contributed largely to the present sinister and undeserved triumph of Materialism, Agnosticism, and Pessimism, which John Talbot Smith has so fittingly characterized as the three D's of dirt, doubt, and despair. A little less sensationalism, a little more conscientiousness, a little more of that admirable quality, scientific caution, and the concord of faith and reason would have become a truism instead of a problem. But such regrets are vain. The evil effects are here to stay, and nothing can undo the past.
If man is but a higher kind of brute, if he has no unique, immortal principle within him, if his free will is an illusion, if his conduct is the necessary resultant of chemical reactions occurring in his protoplasm, if he is nothing more than an automaton of flesh, a mere decaying organism which is the sport of all the blind physical forces and stimuli playing upon it, if he has no prospect of a future life of retribution, if he is unaccountable to any higher authority. Divine or human, then morality ceases to have a meaning, right and wrong lose their significance, virtue and vice are all the same. The constancy of the martyr and the patriotism of the fallen soldier become unintelligible folly, while a heartless and infamous sensualism preying vulturelike upon the carrion of human misery and corruption is to be reckoned the highest expression of wisdom and efficiency. The grandest ideals that have inspired enthusiasm and devotion in human breasts are but idle dreams and worthless delusions. From a world which accepts this degraded view of human nature all heroism and chivalry must vanish utterly; for it will recognize no loftier incentives to action than pleasure and love of self.
Such doctrines, too, are essentially antisocial. If there is no future life for the righting of present injustices, then naught remains but to terminate the prosperity of the wicked here and now. If there is no heaven for man beyond the grave, then it behooves everyone to get all the enjoyment he can out of the present life. It is high time, therefore, that this earthly heaven of mankind should cease to be monopolized by a few coupon-holding capitalists and become, instead, the property of the expropriated proletariat. Anarchy and Socialism are the consequences which the logic of the situation inexorably portends. The starving swine must hurl their bloated brethren from the trough that the latter have heretofore reserved for themselves.
In proportion as these pernicious doctrines have gained ground, modern society has become infected with the virus of animalism, egoism, and perfidy; expediency has been substituted for honor; and purity has been replaced by prophylaxis.
One could not, of course, expect to see a universal and thoroughgoing application of these principles in the concrete. The materialistic view of human nature is horribly unnatural, and, in practice, would be quite unbearable. Natural human goodness and even the mere instinct of self-preservation militate against a reduction to the concrete of this inhuman conception, and these tend, in real life, to mitigate the evil effects of its acceptance. Nevertheless, the actual consequences resulting from the spread of evolutionary principles are so conspicuous and appalling as to leave no doubt whatever of the deadly nature of this philosophy.
Marxian Socialism has been called "scientific" for no other reason than that it is based upon materialistic evolution, and this scientific socialism has brought upon modern Russia a reign of terror, which eclipses that of France in the bloodiest days of the Revolution. Eleanor Marx, it will be remembered, after falling a victim to her father's teachings regarding "free love," committed suicide. The same confession of failure has been made by two recent editors of the socialist Appeal to Reason (J. W. Wayland and J. O. Welday), both of whom committed suicide. These are but a few of the many instances that might be cited to show that the life philosophy inculcated by materialistic evolution is so intolerably unnatural and revolting that neither society nor the individual can survive within the lethal shadow of its baleful influence.
But may not the extreme materialism and pessimism of this view be peculiar to the sordid and joyless outlook of the social malcontent? Does not evolutionary thought conduce to something finer and more hopeful in the case of the progressive and optimistic liberal? Vain hope! We cannot console ourselves with any delusions on this score. Liberalism proclaims the emancipation of humanity from all authority, and the rejection of a future life of retribution is the indispensable premise of the doctrine that makes man a law unto himself. Hence, wherever Liberalism controls the tongues of educators, the human soul becomes a myth, religion a superstition, and immortality an anodyne for mental weaklings. Strong-minded truth-seekers are advised to abandon these irrational beliefs, and to adopt the "New Religion" which dispenses once for all with God and the hereafter. "The new religion," says Charles Eliot, ex-President of Harvard, "will not attempt to reconcile people to present ills by the promise of future compensation. I believe that the advent of just freedom has been delayed for centuries by such promises. Prevention will be the watchword of the new religion, and a skillful surgeon will be one of its ministers. It cannot supply consolation as offered by old religions, but it will reduce the need of consolation."
Again, it may be objected that evolutionists, for all their agnosticism and materialism, frequently put Christians to shame by their irreproachably upright and moral lives. That they sometimes succeed in doing this cannot be gainsaid. But they do so because they borrow their moral standards from Christianity, and do not follow the logical consequences of their own principles. Their morality, therefore, is parasitic, as Balfour has wisely observed, and it will soon die out when the social environment shall have been sufficiently de-Christianized. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die," is their proper philosophy of life, only they have not the courage of their convictions. For the rest, their philosophical convictions have nothing in common with the moral standards which they actually observe. In fact, not only does the monism of evolutionary science fail to motivate the Christian code of morals, but it is radically and irreconcilably opposed to all that Christianity stands for. Hartmann, a modern philosopher, notes with grim satisfaction the clash of the two viewpoints, and predicts (with what, perhaps, is premature assurance) the ultimate triumph of "modern progress." "Many there are," he tells us,
"who speak and write of the struggle of civilization, but few there are who realize that this struggle is the last desperate stand of the Christian ideal before its final disappearance from the world, and that modern civilization is prepared to resort to any means rather than relinquish those things, which it has won at the cost of such great toil. For modern civilization and Christianity are antagonistic to each other, and it is therefore inevitable that one give place to the other. Modern progress can acknowledge no God save one immanent to the world and opposed to the transcendent God of Christian revelation, nor other morality save only that true kind whose source is the human will determining itself by itself and becoming a law unto itself."The World War has done much to dampen the ardor of those who looked forward with enthusiasm to the millennium of a purely scientific religion. In this spectacular lesson they have learned that science can destroy as well as build. They have come to see that biology, physics, and chemistry are morally colorless, and that we must go outside the realm of natural science when we are in quest of that which can give meaning to our lives and noble inspiration to our conduct. When science supersedes religion, the result is always disillusionment following in the wreck-strewn wake of moral and physical disaster.Recently, the chancellor of a great university has seen fit publicly to disclaim, in the name of his institution, all responsibility for a crime committed by two members of the student body. The young men involved in this affair had performed an experimental murder. The experimenters, it would seem, were unable to discriminate between man and beast. They had been taught by their professors that scientific psychology dispenses with the soul, and that the difference between men and brutes is one of degree only, and not of kind. Even that negligible distinction, they were told, had been bridged by evolution. In the sequel, the young men failed, apparently, to see why vivisection, which was right in the case of animals, should be wrong in the case of human beings. Their astounding obtuseness on this particular point was, of course, exceedingly regrettable and hard to understand. Yet, somehow, one cannot help thinking but that their education was largely responsible for it.
In the startling crime of these students, modern educators will find much food for serious thought. It should give pause to those, especially, who have been overzealous in popularizing the Darwinian conception of human nature. Let men of this type reflect upon what slender grounds their dogmatism rests, and let them then weigh well the gravity of the responsibility, which they incur. Tuccimei summarizes for them, in the following terms, the nature and extent of their accountability:
"This perverse determination to place man and brutes in the same category, interests me not so much from the scriptural standpoint as for reasons moral and social. Science, as the more moderate of our adversaries have told us often enough, does not assail religion, but proceeds on its way regardless of the consequences. And the consequences we see only too plainly, now that the evolutionary philosophy has invaded every branch of knowledge and walk of life, and has seeped down among the ignorant and turbulent masses. These consequences are known as socialism and anarchy. The protagonists of the new philosophy strove to repudiate them at first: but now many of their number have laid aside even this pretense. Socialistic doctrines are based exclusively upon our assumed kinship with the brutes, and the leaders of militant socialism have inscribed on the frontispieces of their books the chain fatally logical and terribly true of three names, Darwin, Spencer, Marx. (La teoria dell' evoluzione e le sue applicazioni, p. 46.)
Notes.
[1] Monism. Those who are interested in the history and influence of Darwinism had better get familiar with this Monism thing. Monism is essentially a sort of nature-worshipping materialistic atheism. It was adopted by many scientists as a religion. Monism was then pushed onto the public under the authority of "science". Monists write and talk in a characteristic way, name-dropping Goethe and Spinoza. Ernst Haeckel founded the Monistenbund. Monism is quite warm to Buddhism, but bitterly opposed to Christianity, as you would expect. Some texts: Monism (Haeckel), Mind, Motion, Monism (Romanes), The Monist (the flagship journal of Monism in America).
[2] John Dewey. Atheist philosopher and educational reformer. One of the architects of the modern american public educational system.
[3] Vernon Kellogg, evolutionist and eugenicist. Member of the American Eugenics Society.
[4] The words 'materialist' and 'atheist' have always been labels carrying much-deserved opprobrium, which put the common-sense public on their guard whenever they heard them-- especially "atheist". A german philosopher once said "if someone calls himself a materialist, we Germans think he is not educated." To avoid these labels, materialists and atheists invented all sorts of other labels. T.H. Huxley, though an atheist, called himself an "agnostic". Though also a materialist, he considered himself a kind of spiritual materialist. Pearson, a hard-core materialistic Marxist, preferred to be known as an 'idealist'. Haeckel was an atheist and a materialist, but called himself a Monist. And so on.
Monism ping.
He's obviously just some sort of uneducated cracker who lives in a trailer park.
/
For instance, O'Toole would argue:
1. The notion that people are basically violent leads to wars.
2. Therefore, we should embrace the belief that people are basically peaceful, and seek to at all times turn the other cheek and address the grievances of our enemies rather than confront them with military force.
You would seem to be just slightly obsessed with one topic.
It’ll be interesting to see how this thread evolves.
/RimShot!
The best article I have read in a long time. A president should simply read this to the people for the weekly radio address.
btt
I’d be careful with “screed” and “nonsense” if I were you.
The presidents read enough twaddle to the people as it is.
He said a president.
OK blowhard. Let's cut to the chase. Which of the World's religions do you want us to believe? They all have maxims that conflict with one another. They all claim to reveal the truth. Let me guess, the one that's about 2000 years old?
Do they recruit these people from the Flat Earth Society???
He's obviously just some sort of uneducated cracker who lives in a trailer park.
Just like Newton, right?
[[1. The notion that people are basically violent leads to wars.
2. Therefore, we should embrace the belief that people are basically peaceful, and seek to at all times turn the other cheek and address the grievances of our enemies rather than confront them with military force.]]
Hmmm- sounds exactly like what Obama is pushing for foreign politics
Where in the heck did you read that ANYONE is advocating that everyone beleive the same thing? If peopel wish to beleive in false gods, let them do so- you may beleive whatever you like- your freedom to do so is not in jeapoardy- rest easy guy
[[1. The notion that people are basically violent leads to wars.
2. Therefore, we should embrace the belief that people are basically peaceful, and seek to at all times turn the other cheek and address the grievances of our enemies rather than confront them with military force.]]
However, i find it interesting that Secularists are insisting that the Christian faith be suppressed and kept private (at least until they outlaw even private practice of faith) and that Secularists are insisting that we have a government ‘free from religion’ (Except of course the religion of Secularism).
Perhaps he can also talk about how the earth is flat and the sun goes around the earth.
If you read the footnotes, it is clear the author holds Buddism in contempt and rails against those he believes are against Christianity. This is another anti-Evolution hit piece under the guise of an "intellectual" author, a professor. A professor of Philosophy no less.
In fact he is doing to Evolution in what you claim (in your followup post) secularists are doing to Christianity. While some atheists and mostly communists are actively opposed to Christianity, I think most scientists are more apt to study Evolution for science's sake and are not interested in the politics of controlling religions. They act as the Catholic Church. For example Pope Jean Paul II appreciated Evolution and scientific cosmology and did not let a narrow minded view of Christianity dictate his Catholic Faith. He would never have written an article such as this post.
Many religions have good points to teach a following about moral behavior. When it comes to science, they fall short. Name me one law of science they have produced. Some religions have a very nasty side to them. I'll name one as Islam, they are butchers. Some American Indians had practices such as human sacrifice. For Christianity, I particularly think "turning the other cheek" is a practice for slaves.
The author rails against Agnostics. He really believes they are atheists. So, I guess we agnostics can't believe we just don't know. The author is simply a single-minded boor aping the usual Creationists complaints about Evolution.
Notes:
"[1] Monism. ... Monism is quite warm to Buddhism, but bitterly opposed to Christianity, as you would expect. Some texts: Monism (Haeckel), Mind, Motion, Monism (Romanes), The Monist (the flagship journal of Monism in America)."
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