They should also endeavor to
supply to the negative theologian some positive elements in
Christianity, on grounds more sure to him than the assumption of an
objective "faith once delivered to the saints," which he cannot identify
with the creed of any church as yet known to him."[183]
V. ON THE MOSAIC COSMOGONY. By C. W. Goodwin, M. A. The assumption is
made that the Mosaic account of creation is irreconcilable with the real
creation of the earth. We do wrong in elevating that narrative above its
proper position, and orthodox geologists have grossly erred in attaching
much importance to the language of the first chapter of Genesis. There
is nothing poetical or figurative in the whole account; it contains no
mystical or symbolical meaning, and is a plain statement of just so much
as suited the Jewish mind. All attempts, however, to find any
consistency between it and the present state of science are simply
absurd. The theory of Chalmers and Buckland, and afterward that of Hugh
Miller, are not tenable, for Moses was ignorant of what we now know, and
his alleged description is contradicted by scientific inquiry.
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