Evolution: Its nature, its evidence, and its relation to religious thought

by Joseph LeConte

But some will object that this idea of infinite personality is inconceivable. True enough; but the opposite is far more inconceivable. The ideas of infinite space and infinite time are also inconceivable, yet we must accept them, because the idea of all space or all time being limited is still more inconceivable; for if we think of space or time as limited, immediately there comes the question, “What is there beyond the limit?” There is therefore this wide difference between these two inconceivables: the one is so only in the sense of transcending the power of our mind, but the other is unthinkable, self-contradictory, absurd. So also is it with self-conscious personality. The idea of an infinite self, i. e., God, is indeed inconceivable, but only in the sense of transcending our power of comprehension; but the idea of the consciousness behind the cosmos as being limited or finite is more than inconceivable, it is unthinkable, self-contradictory, absurd; for immediately comes the question, “What is there beyond which limits it?” To the Greek mind Zeus was limited; therefore of necessity came also the idea of Fate, superior to and limiting Zeus himself. To them, therefore, Fate was the real God—the absolute.

3. Divine Personality.—I have used the word personality as expressing the nature of God. But let me not be misunderstood. I well know we can not conceive clearly of an infinite, unconditioned personality. Deeply considered, it seems nothing short of a contradiction in terms. All I insist on is this: In our view of the nature of God, the choice is not between personality and something lower than personality, viz., an unconscious force operating Nature by necessity, as the materialists and pantheists would have us believe; but between personality as we know it in ourselves and something inconceivably higher than personality. Language is so poor that we are obliged to represent even our mental phenomena by physical images. How much more, then, the Divine nature by its human image! Self-conscious personality is the highest thing we know or can conceive. We offer him the very best and truest we have when we call him a Person; even though we know that this, our best, falls far short of the infinite reality.

4. Cause in Nature.—We have thus far spoken only or principally of self-consciousness, but the same precisely is true of another essential attribute of personality, viz., free-will. Every one admits causative force or forces operating in Nature. Science has shown that all the different kinds of force are but different forms of one omnipresent energy. Now, looking abroad on Nature from the outside, this omnipresent energy seems to modern science as simply resident, inherent in matter itself, and therefore as operating unconsciously and by necessity. But the question occurs, “Whence did we get the idea of force, energy, causation?” I answer unhesitatingly: We get it not from without by observation of Nature, but from within through consciousness; not from the outside view, but from, the inside view of phenomena. We can not conceive of phenomena without force, of effects without cause, because we are intensely conscious of being ourselves through our wills an active cause of external phenomena. If we were merely passive observers, not active causers of changes in the external world, then these external phenomena would seem to us merely to shift and change and succeed each in a certain order. We might note the order and determine the laws of sequence, and thus form a science; but it would never enter into our minds to imagine any causal or dynamical nexus between them. In the mind of such passive observer, but not doer—thinker, but not worker—would be completely realized the only thorough-going and consistent materialistic philosophy, i. e., a philosophy in which, like Comte’s, cause and force have no place—are in fact banished as a superstition from science. But the clear consciousness of essential energy, of causative force within, the certainty that we ourselves, through our wills and by the conscious exertion of force do determine changes in the external world, compels us to attribute all changes to causative force of some kind, and naturally enough, until the interference of science, to a personal will like our own. Thus by a necessary law we project our internal states into external Nature.

But see now the steps of evolution of this idea. At first, i. e., in the uncultured races, and also in childhood, external forces take the form of a personal will like our own residing in each object, and controlling its phenomena as our wills control our bodily movements (fetichism). Then, as culture advances, it takes next the form of several personal wills controlling each the phenomena of a different department of Nature (polytheism). Finally, in the highest stage of culture, it takes the form of one personal will controlling the phenomena of the whole cosmos (monotheism). To the religious but unscientific mind in all these stages the personal will is anthropomorphic. But we have already seen ([Chapter III]) how anthropomorphism has been driven by science from one department after another, until now at last by evolution it is driven out of Nature entirely, and to those following this line of thought alone, the phenomena of Nature are relegated to forces inherent in matter, and operating by laws necessary and fatal; and not only so, but material forces are made to invade even the realm of consciousness, and reduce this also to material laws. Thus the savage ejects his own conscious personal will into every separate object of Nature; the modern materialist injects material forces into the realm of consciousness. But, as already seen, a rational philosophy admits these two antithetic views, and strives to combine and reconcile them. This reconciliation, as far as it is possible for us, is found in a personal will immanent in Nature, and determining directly all its phenomena.

Thus it is evident that the idea of a causal nexus between successive phenomena is a primary conception, and therefore ineradicable and certain. Even from the purest evolution point of view it must be true, for, if man’s mind grew out of the forces of Nature, this idea must represent a fact in Nature. Also, analysis shows that all causative force originates in will. Lastly, culture and reason, by a necessary law of expansion, carry us upward to the conception of one infinite sustaining and creative will. Science may sometimes obscure but can not destroy this idea. Evolution, which was supposed by some to have destroyed it for ever, has only temporarily obscured it in the minds of the unreflecting, by the supposed identity of evolution with materialism. From this temporary eclipse it now emerges with still greater clearness and far greater nobleness. For, observe: All the effects known to us in Nature are finite; therefore a personal will, which determines these separately by successive acts, as we do, must also be finite like ourselves. But a will, which by one eternal act ever-doing, never done, determines the evolution and the sustentation of an infinite cosmos, must itself be infinite. Thus only in the doctrine of universal evolution do we rise to a just conception of God as an infinite cause.

5. Design in Nature.—As the idea of cause and force is related to will, so precisely is the idea of design related to thought. We get this also, not from without, but from within. Adaptation of means to ends is in our experience the result of thought, and we can not conceive it to result otherwise. The effect of science can not be to destroy this primary conception—which, indeed, like all primary conceptions, is ineradicable, and already more certain than anything can be made by proof—but only to exalt and purify our conceptions of the designer. For, observe: In any case of adaptive structure, whether in the animal body or in planetary relations, the evidence of design is not in the materials, but in the use of the materials; not in the parts, but in the adjustment of the parts for a purpose. Design, purpose, adjustment, adaptation, are not material things, but relations or intellectual things, and therefore perceivable only by thought, and conceivable only as the result of thought. It is simply impossible to talk about such adaptive structures without using language which implies design. The very word “adaptive” implies it. It is impossible even to think of such structures without implicitly assuming intelligence as the cause. It makes no particle of difference how the material originated, or whether it ever originated at all; it matters not whether the adaptation was done at once out of hand, or whether by slow process of modification; it matters not whether the adaptive modification was brought about by a process of natural selection, or by pressure of a physical environment; whether without law or according to law. The removal of the result from man-like directness of separate action can not destroy the idea of design, but only modify our conception of the Designer. What science, and especially evolution, destroys, therefore, is not the idea of design, but only our low anthropomorphic notions of the mode of working of the Designer.

Precisely the same change takes place here under the influence of science as has taken place in all our notions concerning God. The uncultured savage sees a separate god in every object. As culture advances, his gods become fewer and nobler, until, in the most advanced states, man recognizes but one infinite God, the creator and sustainer of all. God is still in every phenomenon, but no longer as a separate God, but only as the separate manifestation of the One. Thus culture takes away our gods, but only to compel us to seek him in nobler forms until we reach the only true God. But, even after the conception of the one God is reached, how many seem to regard him as altogether such a one as ourselves; but science shows us that his ways are not like our ways, nor his ends as our ends. Thus science, more than all other kinds of culture, simplifies while it infinitely ennobles and purifies our conceptions of Deity.

Again, the same change takes place in our sense of mystery. I suppose most people imagine that it is the special mission of science to destroy all mystery. Many seem to think that superstition, or even religion, is inseparably connected with ignorance and mystery, and all must disappear together before the light of science. But not so. There is only a gradual progressive change—an evolution in the form of mystery as well as in the form of religion. To the savage everything is a separate mystery. The function of science is, indeed, to destroy these separate mysteries, by explaining them; but, in doing so, it only reduces them to fewer and grander mysteries, and these again to still fewer and grander, until, in an ideally perfect science, all separate and partial mysteries are swallowed up in the one all-embracing infinite mystery—the mystery of existence. There is still mystery in each object, but no longer a separate mystery—only a separate manifestation of the one overwhelming mystery.

Or, again, and finally: The same change occurs in our ideas of creation. At first every object is a separate creation—a manufacture. With advancing science these separate, creative acts become fewer and nobler, until now, at last, in evolution, all are embraced and swallowed up in one eternal act of creation—a never-ceasing procession of the divine energy. Every object is still a creation, but not a separate creation—only a separate manifestation of the one continuous creative act.

Now, precisely the same change must take place in our conception of design in Nature. To the uncultured there is a distinct and separate design in every separate work of Nature. But, as science advances, all these distinct, separate, petty, man-like designs are merged into fewer and grander designs, until, finally, in evolution at last, we reach the conception of the one infinite, all-embracing design, stretching across infinite space, and continuing unchanged through infinite time, which includes and predetermines and absorbs every possible separate design. There is still design in everything, but no longer a separate design—only a separate manifestation of the one infinite design.