Fallacies of Evolution

By John D. Charles

Great difficulty is being experienced in finding text books in science that are free from the unscriptural teaching of evolution, or the descent of the species. This is especially true of text books on biological subjects. The baneful effect on the minds and lives of students who receive their training in science from such textbooks is very apparent. That there is no conflict between true science and the Scriptural account of the Creation and the condition and development of both animal and vegetable life is conceded by many of the best scientists and theologians—in fact it is the only position allowable to those who accept the inspiration and inerrancy of the Word of God.

The conviction that the Bible account can be fully established by scientific facts, and the great need of teaching the harmony between the Bible record and scientific investigation gave rise to the contents of this little volume.

These three lectures were given before the student body during the Special Bible Term of Hesston Academy and Bible School in the month of January, 1916, and published in the Gospel Herald soon after. Calls for the lectures in permanent form came from various sources, both educational and theological, from the home and the institutions of learning, and the author was persuaded to arrange his work for publication in book form.

The treatise has a place as a reference work for students in both scientific and theological study. Its bibliography alone is of great value. Moreover, it provides interesting and instructive reading for the home and the library. Its mission is to establish and confirm the student in the faith of the truth of the Bible along the line that it is most frequently attacked by scholars and ripened intellectuality, and at the same time give correct information on questions of science relative to life and its development. May the perusal of its pages and the study of its teachings tend to magnify Him who originates, designs and controls the destiny of all life mortal and immortal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CrossReach Publications
• Release date: Jun 24, 2020

Book preview

FALLACIES of EVOLUTION

A Series of

Three Lectures

By

John D. Charles, A. M.

Head of Science Department, Hesston Academy and Bible School, Hesston, Kansas

Published By

Mennonite Publishing House

Scottdale, Pa.

1917

First published in Pennsylvania 1917 by Mennonite Publishing House.

This edition published in Waterford 2020 by CrossReach Publications.

The main body of this work is in the public domain except where any editing, formatting and/or modernization of the language has been done. All other rights are reserved, including the right to reproduce this edition or portions of it in any form whatsoever without prior written consent from the publisher.

Available in paper and electronic editions. A few select titles are also being published as audiobooks. Please go online for more great works available through CrossReach Publications. If you enjoyed this edition and think others might then consider helping us out by leaving a review online, mentioning us by name.

Contents

Introduction

Lecture I—The Question at Issue

Definitions

Indictment

Verdict of Scholarship

Lecture II—Studies in Science

I. The Origin of life

Spontaneous Generation

Life Depends on Life

The Cell is Complex

II. The Evolution of Species

Definition of Species

No Transmutation of Species

Crossing the Species

Variation of Species

The Mutation Theory and Heredity

Argument from Geology

The Missing Link

Pithecanthropus Erectus

The Colorado Specimen

Skulls

Likenesses

Rudiments

Natural Selection and Adaptations

Degeneration

Persistence

Lecture III. The Bible and Evolution

Origin of Life

The Origin of Man

Savagery—Degeneration

Jesus Christ

Conclusion

Introduction

Great difficulty is being experienced in finding text books in science that are free from the unscriptural teaching of evolution, or the descent of the species. This is especially true of text books on biological subjects. The baneful effect on the minds and lives of students who receive their training in science from such textbooks is very apparent. That there is no conflict between true science and the Scriptural account of the Creation and the condition and development of both animal and vegetable life is conceded by many of the best scientists and theologians—in fact it is the only position allowable to those who accept the inspiration and inerrancy of the Word of God.

The conviction that the Bible account can be fully established by scientific facts, and the great need of teaching the harmony between the Bible record and scientific investigation gave rise to the contents of this little volume.

These three lectures were given before the student body during the Special Bible Term of Hesston Academy and Bible School in the month of January, 1916, and published in the Gospel Herald soon after. Calls for the lectures in permanent form came from various sources, both educational and theological, from the home and the institutions of learning, and the author was persuaded to arrange his work for publication in book form.

The treatise has a place as a reference work for students in both scientific and theological study. Its bibliography alone is of great value. Moreover, it provides interesting and instructive reading for the home and the library. Its mission is to establish and confirm the student in the faith of the truth of the Bible along the line that it is most frequently attacked by scholars and ripened intellectuality, and at the same time give correct information on questions of science relative to life and its development. May the perusal of its pages and the study of its teachings tend to magnify Him who originates, designs and controls the destiny of all life mortal and immortal.

D. H. Bender.

Lecture I—The Question at Issue

In nearly every field of activity, for the last half century writers and speakers have been illustrating or endeavoring to prove their discussions by appealing to evolution as popularly believed with reference to things animate and inanimate, material and immaterial. Evolution is claimed by its advocates to be the greatest intellectual discovery of the nineteenth century, and by some, especially followers of the theory, the greatest thought that ever entered the mind of man. There is possibly no subject on which writers in these days become so easily eloquent as the universality of the great theory of evolution; yet there is no subject which gives a louder call for careful discriminations and cautious statements.

Definitions

The word evolution is derived from the Latin evolvere which means to unroll. In a perfectly legitimate and inoffensive sense it has come to be used to denote any process of advancement, growth or development. For instance, in