Creation and Its Records

Baden Henry Baden-Powell

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Creation and Its Records, by B.H. Baden-Powell This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Creation and Its Records Author: B.H. Baden-Powell Release Date: July 8, 2004 [EBook #12852] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CREATION AND ITS RECORDS *** Produced by Dave Macfarlane and PG Distributed Proofreaders. Produced from images provided by the Million Book Project. CREATION AND ITS RECORDS. pistei nooumen kathrtisqai touV aiwnaV rhmati qeou eiV to mh ek fainomenwn ta blepomena gegonenai — HEB. xi. 3. A brief statement of Christian Belief with reference to Modern facts and Ancient Scripture. BY B.H. BADEN-POWELL, C.I.E., F.R.S.E. CONTENTS PART I. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER II. THE ELEMENT OF FAITH IN CREATION CHAPTER III. THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION STATED CHAPTER IV. CREATIVE DESIGN IN INORGANIC MATTER CHAPTER V. THE CREATION OF LIVING MATTER CHAPTER VI. THE MARKS OF CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE IN THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIC FORMS CHAPTER VII. THE DESCENT OF MAN CHAPTER VIII. FURTHER DIFFICULTIES REGARDING THE HISTORY OF MAN CHAPTER IX. CONCLUDING REMARKS PART II. CHAPTER X. THE GENESIS NARRATIVE—ITS IMPORTANCE CHAPTER XI. SCRIPTURE METHODS OF REVELATION CHAPTER XII.

Informations

• Publié par: arnou
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 26
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Creation and Its Records, by B.H. Baden-Powell
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Creation and Its Records
Author: B.H. Baden-Powell
Release Date: July 8, 2004 [EBook #12852]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CREATION AND ITS RECORDS ***

Produced by Dave Macfarlane and PG Distributed Proofreaders. Produced
from images provided by the Million Book Project.

CREATION AND ITS RECORDS
.

pis
t
e
i

n
o
o
um
e
n

k
a
thrtisqai touV aiwnaV rhmati
qeou eiV to mh ek
f
ai
nomenwn ta blepomena
gegonenai
— HEB. xi. 3.

A brief statement of Christian Belief with reference to Modern
facts and Ancient Scripture.
YBB.H. BADEN-POWELL, C.I.E., F.R.S.E.

CONTENTS
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER II.

THE ELEMENT OF
FAITH
IN CREATION
CHAPTER III.
THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION STATED
CHAPTER IV.
CREATIVE DESIGN IN INORGANIC MATTER
CHAPTER V.
THE CREATION OF LIVING MATTER
CHAPTER VI.
THE MARKS OF CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE IN THE EVOLUTION OF
ORGANIC FORMS
CHAPTER VII.
THE DESCENT OF MAN
CHAPTER VIII.
FURTHER DIFFICULTIES REGARDING THE HISTORY OF MAN
CHAPTER IX.
CONCLUDING REMARKS

PART II.
CHAPTER X.
THE GENESIS NARRATIVE—ITS IMPORTANCE
CHAPTER XI.
SCRIPTURE METHODS OF REVELATION
CHAPTER XII.
MMEEATHNIONDGS T OO FC EIRNTTAEIRNP TREERTIMNSG THE NARRATIVE—ASSUMPTIONS OF
CHAPTER XIII.
TH(i.E) TGHEEN EFISRISS TN APARRRTA TOIFV ET HCEO NNSAIRDREARTEIVD EGENERALLY
(ii.) THE SECOND PART
CHAPTER XIV.
THE INTERPRETATION SUPPORTED BY OTHER SCRIPTURES
CHAPTER XV.
AND SUPPORTED BY THE CONTEXT
CHAPTER XVI.
THE DETAILS OF THE CREATION NARRATIVE
APPENDIX.
PROFESSOR DELITZSCH ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY
Among the recollections that are lifelong, I have one as vivid as ever after more
than twenty-five years have elapsed; it is of an evening lecture—the first of a
series—given at South Kensington to working men. The lecturer was Professor
Huxley; his subject, the Common Lobster. All the apparatus used was a good-
sized specimen of the creature itself, a penknife, and a black-board and chalk.
With such materials the professor gave us not only an exposition, matchless in
its lucidity, of the structure of the crustacea, but such an insight into the
purposes and methods of biological study as few could in those days have
anticipated. For there were as yet no Science Primers, no International Series;
and the "new biology" came upon us like the revelation of another world. I think
that lecture gave me, what I might otherwise never have got (and what some
people never get), a profound conviction of the reality and meaning of facts in
nature. That impression I have brought to the attempt which this little book
embodies. The facts of nature are God's revelation, of the same weight, though
not the same in kind, as His written Word.
At the same time, the further conviction is strong in my mind, not merely of the
obvious truth that the Facts and the Writing (if both genuine) cannot really differ,
but further, that there must be, after all, a true way of explaining the Writing, if
only it is looked for carefully—a way that will surmount not only the difficulty of
the subject, but also the impatience with which some will regard the attempt.
Like so many other questions connected with religion, the question of
reconciliation produces its double effect. People will ridicule attempts to solve
it, but all the same they will return again and again to the task of its actual
solution.
That the latter part of the proposition is true, has recently received illustration in
the fact that a review like the
Nineteenth Century
, which has so little space to
spare, has found room in four successive numbers
[1]
for articles by Gladstone,
Huxley, and H. Drummond, on the subject of "Creation and its Records." May I
make one remark on this interesting science tournament? I can understand the
scientific conclusions Professor Huxley has given us. I can also understand Mr.
Gladstone, because he values the Writing as the professor values the Facts.
But one thing I can
not
understand. Why is Professor Huxley so angry or so
contemptuous with people who value the Bible, whole and as it stands, and
want to see its accuracy vindicated? Why are they fanatics, Sisyphus-
labourers, and what not? That they are a very large group numerically, and
hardly contemptible intellectually, is, I think, obvious; that a further large group
(who would not identify themselves wholly with the out-and-out Bible
defenders) feel a certain amount of sympathy, is proved by the interest taken in
the controversy. Yet all "reconcilers" are ridiculed or denounced—at any rate
are contemptuously dismissed. Can it be that the professor has for the moment
overlooked one very simple fact?
The great bulk of those interested in the question place their whole hope for
their higher moral and spiritual life in this world and the next on one central
Person—the LORD JESUS CHRIST. If He is wrong, then no one can be right—
there is no such thing as right: that is what they feel. It will be conceded that it is
hardly "fanatical" to feel this. But if so, surely it is not fanatical, but agreeable to
the soberest reason, further to hold that this (to them sacred) PERSON did (and

His apostles with Him) treat the Book of Genesis as a whole (and not merely
parts of it) as a genuine revelation—or, to use the popular expression, as the
Word of
GOD. That being so, can it be matter for surprise or contemptuous pity,
that they should be anxious to vindicate the Book, to be satisfied that the
MASTER was not wrong? That is the ultimate and very real issue involved in
the question of Genesis.
As long as people feel
that
, they must seek the reconciliation of the two
opposing ideas. If the attempt is made in a foolish or bitter spirit, or without a
candid appreciation of the facts, then the attempt will no doubt excite just
displeasure. But need it always be so made?
As to the first part of my proposition that attempts to reconcile religion and
science are received with a certain dislike, it is due partly to the unwisdom with
which they are sometimes made. Prof. H. Drummond speaks of the dislike as
general.
[2]
If this is so, I, as a "reconciler," can only ask for indulgence, hoping that grace
may be extended to me on the ground of having something to say on the
subject that has not yet been considered.
Nor, as regards the impatience of the public, can I admit that there is only fault
on one side. In the first place, it will not be denied that some writers, delighted
with the vast, and apparently boundless, vision that the discovery (in its modern
form) of Evolution opened out to them, did incautiously proceed, while
surveying their new kingdom, to assert for it bounds that stretch beyond its
legitimate scope.
Religionists, on the other hand, imagining, however wrongly, that the erroneous
extension was part of the true scientific doctrine, attacked the whole without
discrimination.
While such a misapprehension existed, it was inevitable that writers anxious
alike for the dignity of science and the maintenance of religion, should step in to
point out the error, and effect a reconciliation of claims which really were never
in conflict.
It is hardly the fault of "religionists" that it was at first supposed that one
could
not hold the doctrine of evolution without denying a "special" creation and a
designing Providence. It was on this very natural supposition that the first
leading attack—attributed to the Bishop of Oxford—proceeded. And the writer
fell into the equally natural mistake of taking advantage of the uncompleted and
unproved state of the theory at the time, to attack the theory itself, instead of
keeping to the safer ground, namely, that whatever might ultimately be the
conclusion of evolutionists, it was quite certain that no theory of evolution that at
all coincided with the known facts, offered any ground for argument against the
existence of an Intelligent Lawgiver and First Cause of all; nor did it tend in the
slightest to show that no such thing as creative design and providence existed
in the course of nature.
What the discovery of evolution really did, was to necessitate a revision of the
hitherto popularly accepted and generally assumed and unquestioned notion of
what
creation
was. And it has long appeared to me, that while now the most
thoroughgoing advocates of evolution generally admit that their justly cherished
doctrine has nothing to say to the existence of a Creator, or to the possibility of
design—which may be accepted or denied on other grounds—the writers on
the side of Christianity have n