Human Origin and Christian Doctrine

Abstract

THE late Bishop Gore remarks, in his “Belief in God”, that it is not so much about the existence of God that men dispute, as the nature of the God in whom they can believe. Sir Ambrose Fleming, in the second published edition of his presidential address to the Victoria Institute, on “Modern Anthropology versus Biblical Statements on Human Origin”, takes a less tolerant view. In his belief, as he states it, that “adherence to the doctrine of [organic] evolution is entirely inconsistent with belief in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity . . .”, he appears rather to embrace in one atheistical category all who do not subscribe to this belief; such, at least, is the irresistible impression one receives on reading his address. This premise, which at best can have but an individual, and not a general, application, will be further considered: but first, all who admit the transmutation of speciesand they are a heterogeneous assemblage, and must include, besides modernist churchmen, churchmen as orthodox as Bishop Gore, educated laymen, Christian and non-Christian, agnostics, atheists, and even early churchmen like St. Augustinemust settle down together and consider the rest of Sir Ambrose's discourse.