Sec. 34. Proposition 1. Animals and Plants First Appeared on the Earth at a Certain Time
There was a time when there were no animals, nor plants on our planet. Therefore, they must have appeared at a definite period.
The rocks tell us that animals and plants first appeared on the earth in the archæozoic or primordial geological age, which, according to Haeckel, began 100,300,000 years ago. (Last words on Evolution, p. 165.) He also says that “life began to exist at a definite period,” “on our planet;” that “no organism can exist or discharge its functions without water. No water, no life!” and that the surface of the earth had to cool down so as to convert “the envelope of steam into water” before animals and plants could live. (Evolution of Man, p. 200.)
Sec. 35. Proposition 2. First Animal and Plant were Either Specially Created; or Arose by Spontaneous Generation from Inorganic Matter
Mysterious and miraculous as it may seem, animals and plants have lived on the earth during this eternity of time. The earth is now covered with countless millions of them. We know that we, ourselves, are here. How did they happen to be here? How did we get here? How did life originate on the earth?
It is obvious that the first animal or plant that appeared on the earth was either directly and specially made, by a supernatural psychic and creative force, of inorganic matter; or that it arose, by spontaneous generation, from such matter; for it must necessarily have originated in the one manner or in the other. How else could it have come into existence?
So far as I know, there are only two theories, among educated and scientific men, as to the origin of animals and plants. The one is that they were directly and specially made by the Creator; the other is that they arose by spontaneous generation, from inorganic matter. Which of these is most plausible? (Spencer, Principles of Biology, vol. 1, pp. 415-416.)
The evolutionist and materialist maintain that the course of nature is “uniform, continuous and everlasting;” that the earth is now behaving identically, as it has been ever since it came into existence; that animals and plants are now being evolved, as in the past, while others are becoming extinct, and that every animal and plant is merely a co-ordinated term in natures “great progression.” (Huxley, Man’s Place in Nature, p. 151.)