On the other hand, the essential idea of the Christian doctrine of Creation is that, back at a period called “the beginning,” forces and powers were brought into exercise and results were accomplished which have not since been exercised or accomplished.  In other words, the origin of the world and the things upon it was essentially and radically different from the manner in which the present order of nature is now being sustained and perpetuated.  The mere matter of time is in no way the essential idea in the problem.  The question of how much time was occupied in the work of Creation is of no importance, neither is the question of how long ago it took place.  The one essential idea is that the processes and methods of Creation are beyond us, for we have nothing with which to measure it; Creation and the reign of “natural law” are essentially incommensurable.  The one thing that the doctrine of Creation insists upon is that the origin of our world and of the things upon it must have been brought about by some direct and unusual manifestation of the power of the Being whom we call the Creator; and that since this original Creation the things of nature have been perpetuated and sustained by processes and methods which (though still essentially inscrutable by us) we call the order of nature and the reign of natural law.

But in view of the series of facts enumerated in the previous pages, the doctrine of Creation is established by modern scientific discoveries almost like the conclusion of a mathematical problem.

III

How are modern intelligent men and women to avoid any longer this inevitable conclusion of a literal Creation as the method of origin for our world and the things upon it?

The facts enumerated in the previous pages are not new; it is only the present grouping and arrangement of them, and the conclusions drawn from them, that are new.  Of all the leading facts enumerated above, only the last one, the one regarding geology, is any longer a subject of serious discussion by educated people.  And the general facts as stated above regarding geology have been proved (by the present writer) with such a wealth of facts and arguments that they also must speedily be acknowledged by scientists, when the latter take the trouble to study these facts and arguments.  And with geology once adjusted to a system of real inductive science, instead of being as hitherto under the hypnotic control of speculative fancies and subjective methods, there is no longer any room for speculations regarding the origin of our world by evolutionary processes.  It becomes almost a mathematical Q.E.D. that things were made in the beginning by methods and processes that are no longer operative, so far as science can observe.  This means a real Creation, in the Bible sense of the term, something distinct from the means by which nature is now being sustained and carried on.  Any attempt to describe the why or the how of this Creation would be useless speculation; but this much is science, and science that is to-day all the more impressive and conclusive because it has been won by centuries of conflict with every conceivable opposing prejudice.