19] to bring the
biblical account into harmony with the modern theory of evolution.
Capron is fully convinced that "the most rudimentary knowledge of
geology is sufficient to satisfy any candid critic that the Genesis
narrative as interpreted by any one of them[20] cannot be brought into
harmony with the admitted facts of science." He, therefore, attempts a
new harmony by trying to show that the first chapter of Genesis {52}
gives only the order in which the creative words were uttered, not the
order in which the resulting effects were produced. Unfortunately, in
accomplishing this purpose, he, like his predecessors, reveals an
almost complete disregard for the obvious meaning of the Genesis
narrative.

After a close study of the Genesis narrative and the numerous attempts
of harmonizing it with science, the present writer has become
thoroughly convinced that it is impossible to establish a complete,
detailed harmony between the Genesis account of creation and the
established facts of science without doing violence to the Bible or to
science or to both. The only harmony possible is what has been called
an "ideal harmony," that is, a harmony not extending to details, but
limited to salient features. But this gives away the very position for
which the "harmonists" have contended. As Driver says, "If the
relative priority of plants and animals, or the period at which the sun
and moon were formed, are amongst the details on which harmony cannot
be established, what other statement (in the account of creation) can
claim acceptance on the ground that it forms part of the narrative of
Genesis?"[21]

Admitting now the presence of discrepancies between science and the Old
Testament, what becomes of the Old Testament?[22] Must it be {53}
discarded as no longer "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction which is in righteousness"? Some there are
who seem to fear such fate for the book they dearly love. On the other
hand, there are multitudes who calmly admit the claims of science, and
at the same time continue to read and study the pages of the Old
Testament, assured that it can still furnish nourishment to their
spiritual natures. This attitude of confidence has been made possible,
on the one hand, by a broader and truer conception of divine
revelation, and, on the other, by a more adequate interpretation of the
purpose of the Bible and of the biblical writers.

Believers in God have come