The essential idea of the Evolution theory is _uniformity_; that is, it
seeks to show that life in all its various forms and manifestations
probably originated by causes similar to or identical with forces and
processes now prevailing. It teaches the absolute supremacy and the past
continuity of natural law as now observed. It says that the changes now
going on in our modern world have always been in action and that these
present-day natural changes and processes are as much a part of the
origin of things as anything that ever took place in the past. In short,
Evolution as a philosophy of nature is an effort to smooth out all
distinction between Creation and the ordinary processes of nature that
are now under the regime of "natural law."
On the other hand, the essential idea of the doctrine of Creation is
that, back at a period called the "beginning," forces and powers were
brought into exercise and results were accomplished that have not since
been exercised or accomplished. That is, the origin of the first organic
forms, indeed of the whole world as we know it, was essentially and
radically _different_ from the ways in which these forms are perpetuated
and the world sustained to-day. _Time_ is in no way the essential idea
in the problem.
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