The Story of Creation as Told By Theology and By Science

by T. S. Ackland

"And God saw every thing—which He had made, and behold it was good exceedingly.

"And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day."

The terms in which the Creation of man is spoken of are such as to challenge particular attention and to induce us to expect something very different from what occurred on any previous occasion. In the first place, more agents than one are introduced by the use of the plural form of the verb, and thus at the very commencement of man's career there is an intimation of that mysterious fact of the Trinity in Unity which was to have so important an influence upon his future destiny. Then we are told that man was to be formed in the Image of God, a statement which probably is of very wide import. It has been variously interpreted as having reference to the spiritual, moral, and intellectual nature of man; to the fact that the nature of man was afterwards to be assumed by the Second Person of the Trinity; to the delegated empire of this world which man was to hold. There are two expressions of St. Paul: that "man is the image and glory of God" (1 Cor. xi. 7), and that "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal Power and Godhead" (Rom. i. 20), which seem to indicate that this record has a significance which as yet we can only partially understand. Then the story of man's creation is repeated in the second chapter, and while the other events recorded in the first chapter are very briefly summarized, that of man is very much amplified. This does riot necessarily indicate an independent account, as is sometimes asserted; at the fourth verse of the second chapter a distinct portion of revelation commences—the special dealing of God with man, and this could not be intelligible without an amount of detail with reference to man's origin, which would have been out of place in the short account of the origin of the world by which it is preceded. In this account the creation of Adam and Eve is recorded as two separate events, the latter of which is described in terms of deep mystery, of which all that we can say is that they point to that still deeper mystery—the birth of the Bride— the Lamb's Wife from the pierced side of the Lamb. But in the case of Adam there is a remarkable difference from anything that has gone before. Two distinct acts of creation are recorded; one of which places man before us in his physical relation to the lower animals, while the other treats of him in his spiritual relation to his Maker. "The Lord God formed man (the Adam) dust from the ground (adamah), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a soul of life." The inspiration of the "breath of lives" distinguishes the creation of man from that of all other creatures.

The Geological records harmonize exactly with the Bible as to the date of man's appearance on the earth. It is towards the close of the age of gigantic mammalia, that the earliest remains of man's workmanship make their appearance in the shape of tools and weapons rudely fashioned from stone. Parts of human skeletons have also been occasionally found, but they are exceedingly rare. Weapons and bones are alike confined to superficial, and comparatively very recent formations. From such traces as have been found there is no reason to believe that any physical changes of importance have taken place in man's body since his first appearance on the earth. The differences which do exist are of the same kind as, and not greater than, the differences which exist between individuals at present.

The gift of dominion over the lower animals seems to indicate something different from that which gives one animal superiority over another, and accordingly we find that it is not by physical power that that dominion is exercised; but that in most of his physical faculties man is inferior to the very animals which he holds in subjection. It is partly in virtue of his intellectual superiority, and partly perhaps by means of an instinctive recognition on the part of the animals of man's higher nature (Gen. ix. 2) that that supremacy is maintained.

SECTION 10. DEVELOPMENT.

We have now to consider the question of development, in reference to the Mosaic Record of the last two days, and to the known facts to which that record has relation. The account of the third day's work has also a bearing on the subject, but as the same considerations will to a great extent apply to animals and to plants, it will not be necessary to make any special reference to it.

The facts in favour of the theory of development are these:—1. The different classes of plants and animals are not separated by broad lines of demarcation, but shade insensibly into each other. 2. The characteristics of the same species are not constant; the lion, for instance, the horse, the elephant, and the hyena of the present day differ in many minor points from the corresponding animals of the Tertiary period, so that unless there was a possibility of spontaneous change, we must assume successive creations of animals, with only trivial differences. 3. In all animals there are minute individual differences, and if under any circumstances these differences had a tendency to accumulate, they might in the course of time result in great structural modifications. 4. Man has been able to take advantage of this fact and by careful selection to mould the breeds of domestic animals to a certain extent in accordance with his own wishes.

The theory of development assumes that for the care of man other forces might be substituted, which in a long course of ages might result in changes of far greater extent than those produced by human agency. The forces assigned are natural selection and sexual selection. The difficulties in the way of this hypothesis have been already considered, and only require to be briefly re-stated.

1. As regards modifications of organs already existing, the two alleged causes are insufficient to account for the results which we witness, since in each individual case the concurrence of many contingent causes, continued through a long series of ages, is required to produce the result. But the probabilities against such, a concurrence in any one case are enormous, and against their concurrence in a large number of cases the chances are practically infinite.