Evolution and creation / by Sir Oliver Lodge.

  • Oliver Lodge
Date:
1930
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Evolution and creation / by Sir Oliver Lodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    never see anything spring into existence de novo. Everything which arrives, no matter how unexpectedly, can always be traced back to something pre-existent. Those who uphold the orthodox doctrine of Creation need not object to the phrase, inasmuch as none of them would think of declaring that nothing existed prior to Creation. In their view the Deity certainly pre-existed everything, and can be taken as an adequate First Cause of all existence. Nothing has come from nothing, but everything has come at a Word, or Words, of Command. If that is the ortho¬ dox view of Creation there is nothing in the aphorism that even seems to contradict it. It makes no assertion about it either way,— no theological assertion at all. It is a kind of negative statement, and need not be disputed. Take the second sentence. Nothing that exists can he destroyed. It is obvious that this cannot mean that a letter, or a coin, or a flower cannot be destroyed. The existence thought of must be a funda¬ mental and not an adventitious one. The destruction of any particular collocation 5-1
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