y-going
fashion does not really answer any of them. It is a verbal answer and
does not give us any specific information. {107} Investigation is
gradually showing just _how_ men did arise and _how_ the earth once
formed part of a larger whole from which it was whirled off.

The only valid position to take in the light of this retreat of the
biblical view of the world is to accept the evident conclusion that
those who wrote the various books of the bible told the beliefs of
their time. Some half-hearted converts to this conclusion try to take
the edge off the admission by saying that the bible does not teach
science. Let us put it frankly and say that the bible taught the
knowledge of the olden days, their science, but that this does not at
all agree with what we have come to know by real investigation.

While the primitive view of the world had the strength which came to it
from the sincere belief of Christians, it struggled valiantly against
the new knowledge. Unfortunately, Christians were, by their training,
dogmatists and sought to silence the rising whispers of doubt by
persecution, rather than by frank appeal to fact and reason. Because
of this attitude, there developed the tradition of antagonism between
science and religion which is so often referred to. The primitive view
of the world, woven into historical Christianity, because shot through
the bible, was helpless in the face of this vigorous enemy which was
nourished by the intellectual adulthood of man. Its partisans were
shocked by the denial of beliefs that seemed to them bound up with the
most sacred and important facts. What could be more natural than an
appeal to force to put down such impious suggestions! The story is not
a pleasant one but it should not be looked upon as unexpected.
Christianity used its power but was defeated. The fight is to all
intents and purposes over; the primitive view of the {108} world has
gone forever and Christianity is in the throes of the effort to loosen
itself from it, as a swimmer tries to free himself from the embrace of
a corpse which would drag him down.

But this is not the first time that Christianity has been forced to
give up a belief that would not fit in with the facts of a wider
experience. We saw that the early Christians believed in the coming of
the kingdom of God upon earth in their own day and generation. This
hope was relinquished by the Church as time passed and it was not
fulfilled. Th