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which seems more acceptable to many theologians, simply regards evolution as God’s method
of working. It is sometimes represented in a form in which God is merely called in to bridge the
gaps between the inorganic and the organic, and between the irrational and the rational,
creation. But to the extent to which a special operation of God is assumed, gaps are admitted
which evolution cannot bridge, and something new is called into being, the theory naturally
ceases to be a pure theory of evolution. It is sometimes held that only the body of man is
derived by a process of evolution from the lower animals, and that God endowed this body with
a rational soul. This view meets with considerable favor in Roman Catholic circles.
2. OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY.
Several objections can be raised against the theory of the
evolutionary descent of man from the lower animals.
a. From the point of view of the theologian the greatest objection to this theory is, of course,
that it is contrary to the explicit teachings of the Word of God. The Bible could hardly teach
more clearly than it does that man is the product of a direct and special creative act of God,
rather than of a process of development out of the simian stock of animals. It asserts that God
formed man out of the dust of the ground, Gen. 2:7. Some theologians, in their eagerness to
harmonize the teachings of Scripture with the theory of evolution, suggest that this may be
interpreted to mean that God formed the body of man out of the body of the animals, which is
after all but dust. But this is entirely unwarranted, since no reason can be assigned why the
general expression “of the dust of the ground” should be used after the writer had already
described the creation of the animals and might therefore have made the statement far more
specific. Moreover, this interpretation is also excluded by the statement in Gen. 3:19, “In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground: for out of it wast thou
taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” This certainly does not mean that
man shall return to his former animal state. Beast and man alike return again to the dust. Eccl.
3:19,20. Finally, we are told explicitly in I Cor. 15:39 that “All flesh is not the same flesh: but
there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts.” As to the spirit of man the Bible teaches
explicitly that it came directly from God, Gen. 2:7, and therefore cannot be regarded as a
natural development of some previously existing substance. In perfect harmony with this Elihu
says, “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty giveth me life,” Job 33:4.
Furthermore, Scripture also teaches that man was at once separated from the lower creation
by an enormous chasm. He at once stood on a high intellectual, moral, and religious level, as
created in the image of God and was given dominion over the lower creation, Gen. 1:26,27,31;
2:19,20; Ps. 8:5-8. By his fall in sin, however, he fell from his high estate and became subject to
a process of degeneration which sometimes results in bestiality. This is quite the opposite of
what the evolutionary hypothesis teaches us. According to it man stood on the lowest level at