One might just as well arrange the modern dogs
from the little spaniel to the St. Bernard, for the geological series is
just as artificial as would be this of the dogs.
2. Another conclusion from the facts enumerated above is that there has
obviously been a great world catastrophe, and that this must be assigned
as the cause of a large part,--_just how large a part_ it is at present
difficult to say,--of the changes recorded in the fossiliferous rocks.
This sounds very much like a modern confirmation of the ancient record
of a universal Deluge; and I say confidently that no one who will
candidly examine the evidence now available on this point can fail to
be impressed with the force of the argument for a world catastrophe as
the general conclusion to be drawn from the fossiliferous rocks all over
the globe.
3. Finally, there is the further conclusion, the only conclusion now
possible, if there is no definite order in which the fossils occur,
namely, that life in all its varied forms _must have originated on the
globe by causes not now operative_, and this Creation of all the types
of life may just as reasonably have taken place all at once, as in some
order prolonged over a long period.
As I have pointed out in my "Fundamentals," a strict scientific method
may destroy the theory of Successive Ages, and it may show that there
has been a great world catastrophe.
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