"Concerning the length of earth history and of human history, the Bible is absolutely silent. Science may conclude that the earth is 100,000,000 or 100,000,000,000 years old; the conclusion does not affect the Bible in the slightest degree. Or, if one is worried over the progressive appearance of land, plants, animals, and man on the successive six days of a "Creation Week," there is well-known Biblical support for the scientists' contention that eons rather than hours elapsed while these things were taking place.

"'A day in the sight of the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day.'

"Taking the Bible itself as an authority dissipates many of the difficulties which threaten to make a gulf between religion and science.

"The fact that the seventh day was stated to be a day of rest has no bearing upon the length of other days. I have no doubt that the man who made that chapter of Genesis had in his mind days of twenty-four hours each, but I reserve for myself the right to make my own interpretation of the meaning of words, as does every Christian, trivialist or modernist. * * *

Discovering God's Methods

"Many of us believe that science is truly discovering even the processes and the methods which God, the spiritual power and eternal force, has used and is now using to effect His will in nature.

"We believe we have a more accurate and a more deeply significant knowledge of our Maker today than had the Hebrew Patriarchs who thought a man could hide from God in a garden, or who believed that God could tell man an untruth. (Genesis 2:17 states that God told man he would surely die if he ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; man ate, he did not die, God knew he would not die therefore.)

"There is the widespread misconception that if one accepts the evolutionary process as the method which God used, he will find himself in a moral dilemma. Regardless of sect or creed, all followers of Christ must accept His teaching that the lay of life is love, that service to others is the true guiding principle, that self-sacrifice, even to death, is the best trait a man can display.

Selfish to Triumph

"To many, evolution means the survical of the fittest in the struggle for existance; and that is taken to imply that the selfish triumph, the most cruel and bloodthirsty are exalted, those who disregard others win. * * *

"Here is a real reason for opposition to evolution; men are not driven from it by fear of discovering that their bodies are structally like those of apes and monkeys; it does not bother us to discover that we are mammals. * * * It does not bother us to find the implication that the law of progress has apparently been opposed to the love of Christ, but here are the facts:

"It has been my privilege as a geologist to read the records in the rocks; knowing the ages of the rocks has led to better knowledge of the Rock of Ages; I have watched the procession of life on the long road from the one-celled but of primitive protoplasm to the present assemblage of varied creatures including man.

Perpetuation Through Service

"At times of crisis in the past it was rarely selfishness or cruelty or strength of talon and of claw that determined success or failure. Survival values at different times have been measured in different terms.

"Ability to breath air by means of lungs rather than to purify the blood by means of gills meant success in escaping from the water to the land. Love of offspring and tender care for the young gave the weak and puny mammals of long ago the ability to triumph over much stronger and more powerful reptiles like the dinosaur.