Empedocles suggested that the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water were played upon the forces of love and hate, producing plants, and that these plants budded off animals. Some of our brethren think that my attitude toward the theory of evolution reveals a state of 11 staggering ignorance," and that some of us are too lazy to study and try to understand this "unproven and complex theory," and that we are trying to "smear" it because we "fear it." I have said, "the theory of evolution is just as nutty now as in the days of Empedocles."

I am aware of the research in the field of archaeology and paleontology, and, that many discoveries have been made since the days of Thales, Anaximander and Empedocles. But the chasm between living and nonliving matter, between the different "kinds" of animals and plants, and the total absence of any credible evidence that there has been any crossing between the "kinds" or, from one genus to another, render the theory just as "nutty" now as it was in the days of Empedocles. And any theory, whether in the swaddling clothes of infancy or hoary with age, that must begin with an assumption that billions of years ago lifeless matter (the origin of which is unknown) was acted upon by natural forces (resident or external, nobody knows) bringing forth life, from which all life both animal and vegetable had come, is just as nutty as that "earth, air, fire, and water were acted upon by the forces of love and hate.

Oh yes, much has been learned since the days of Empedocles. Many theories have been "postulated." The pages of discarded and dust-covered books are filled with the bones of theories which once brought newfound joy to the hearts of scientists, but such men as Sir Arthur Keith still say, "evolution is unproved and unprovable, and the only alternative to special creation, which is unthinkable." "Unprovable!" But they keep on trying. Perhaps "nutty" is Dot the word, but, there should be some word to describe the actions of a man who creates a whole race of people from one tooth which finally turned out to be a pig's tooth, or, a man who is so determined to disprove Genesis 1 that he creates a hoax such as! the Piltdown Man and gets him into the hall of man in the museum.

Theories and scientists come and go but Genesis I remains the same. And if you won't have Genesis 1, try Acts 17:24-25. When the last leaves of approaching winters have fallen upon the grave of the last theory, these passages will still read: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." And, "God who made the world and all things therein-gave to all life and breath and all things."

Let me say in the language of Josh Billings: "It ain't what we don't know that hurts us, but knowin' too many things that ain't so." Ignorance is a blight, but there are some things worse.

Truth Magazine XX: 39, p. 610
September 30, 1976