If
the idea of God has been obscured, and the power of its apprehension
deadened, the man can only grope about helplessly, fashioning this
explanation of nature and that--all more or less false, but all dimly
bearing witness to the two absolute facts, that there is an inner
non-material self, and an external non-material God.
If then there are insuperable difficulties in connecting thought with
matter by any process of unaided development, there are also great
difficulties, even when thought in a rudimentary form is given, in
conceiving it developed into man's reason, or man's religious belief, by
any known process of "natural" causation.
CHAPTER VIII.
_FURTHER DIFFICULTIES REGARDING THE HISTORY OF MAN_.
There are, however, some other matters connected with the history of man
on the globe, unconnected with psychological development, but which
demand notice, as making the argument against an undesigned, unaided
development of man a cumulative one. It is urged that whatever may be
thought of the connection of man with the animal creation, at any rate
the received Christian belief regarding the origin of man--especially
his late appearance on the scene--is contrary to known facts, and that
we have to mount up to a vast geologic antiquity to account for what is
known from exhumed remains in caves and lake dwellings, and the like.
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