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8 z^'2-03
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
BIBLICAL BIOLOGY.
A CONTRIBUTION TO RELIGIOUS NON-SCIENCE.
---------- -----------By ANNIE BESANT.
---------- *----------
t “ Avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of
science, falsely so-called.”—1 Tim. vi., 20.
In these later days, when science is carrying devastation
into the land of faith, and godless education is everywhereoffering the fruit of the tree of knowledge to the children
of men, it behoves those who still cling to the faith once
delivered to the saints to offer such small aid as they may
in defending the citadel of Christianity, the Holy Bible,
against its foes. And above all things is it necessary to
know thoroughly what is in the Bible, so that those who
“ turn the Bread of Life into stones to cast against their
enemies ” may not suddenly shoot one out of an unsuspected
catapult. Let us search the Scriptures, as did the noble
Bereans, and we shall be rewarded by discovering therein
biological facts that we shall never find if we confine our
selves to works written by mere uninspired scientific men.
And, first, let us reject with indignation the idea that
the Bible is not written to teach us science. All that is in
the Bible is written “for our learning” (Bom. xv., 4),
and if scientific statements are made therein they must be
made for our instruction. It is not conceivable that when.
“ holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost” (2 Peter i., 21) they spake wrong. The very
thought is blasphemy, and must be at once rejected by
every reverent mind. How should we be able to trust the
Bible in its revelations about heaven if we refuse to credit
its revelations about earth ? If it is worthy our faith in
celestial matters, surely we may believe it in matters*
terrestrial. If it is to be our guide to eternal, much more
must it be our guide to temporal, truths. Surely no one
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BIBLICAL BIOLOGY.
will be foolish enough to accept a light to his feet and a
lamp to his paths (see Ps. cxix., 105) if that light is delu
sive on the road along which he walks, and only throws a
glare on the far-off mountains beyond the river of death ?
No! Against all such “oppositions of science falsely
so-called” let us set our faces as flint (see Isa. 1., 7).
Give up one of these precious words, and we give up all.
If God has not “at sundry times and in divers manners ”
spoken “in times past unto the fathers by the prophets”
how can we be sure that he “hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son” (Heb. i., 1, 2)? Rather let us
‘ ‘ receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able
to save” our “ souls” (James i., 21), and thank God, who
has hidden these things from the wise and prudent Darwins
and Huxleys, and has revealed them unto babes (see
Matt, xi., 25).
Gen. i. contains some biological facts of great interest
and novelty. Herein we learn that trees brought forth
fruit, and herbs yielded seed, and the earth brought forth
grass, before the sun existed to “ divide the day from^he
night” (verses 11—14). These were the first living things
that existed on the earth. At that time there was no ani
mal life in existence ; no sound of life broke the silence of
those vast woods; for two days the vegetable world tri
umphed in security; no snail smeared the delicate fronds
of the fern ; no caterpillar ate the dainty new-born leaves;
no sparrow pecked the cherry ; no blackbird feasted on the
strawberry. Dogmatic science asserts that these grasses
and herbs and fruit-trees could not have brought forth
their seeds and fruits without the sunrays, but Genesis
knows better. Foolhardy science produces miserable pieces
of rock, containing fossil animals older than any plants,
and sets them against our glorious revelation. But are
men moles or rabbits, that they should burrow in the earth
and bring out these deceiving pebbles which God merci
fully hid out of sight, clearly showing that he intended
them to be out of mind ? Far better leave the earth as
God made it, and live on the surface, where God placed us.
The fossils cannot injure the moles, whereas it is plain
that they are a serious danger to a child-like faith. Are we
not told that except we 1 ‘ become as little children ” we “ shall
not enter into the kingdom of heaven ” (Matt, xviii., 3),
and I ask you, as sensible persons, “ I speak as to wise
�BIBLICAL BIOLOGY.
O'
0'
men, judge ye what I say” (1 Cor. x., 15), would any
child you ever heard of trouble its little head about Terebratula biplicata, Thecodontosaurus, Pterodactylus crassirostris, Noeggerathia cuneifolia, Homalonotus Delphinocephalas, Gorgonia infundibuliformis ? Would not the
mere names be enough to bring on croup ? And if we are
to become as little children, is it not clear that creatures
possessing names of this description are, by the merciful
dispensation of Providence, stamped as utterly inappropriate
to our present state ?
There is one beautiful suggestion, it would be going too
far to call it thought, of a man of God, which the truly
pious may well ponder over. It is this. Perhaps God
created the earth, just as it is, full of fossils, placing these
apparent records of the past out of the sight of simple
people, but ready to entrap the carnal geologist, as it is
written: “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness”
(1 Cor. iii., 19). Who can say that fossils are not among
the means prophesied of by Paul when he says that “ God.
shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe
a lie : that they all might be damned ” (2 Thess. ii., 11) ?
At any rate, no one ever alleges that people will be damned
for refusing to believe in fossils, while if Christianity be
true, people may be damned for believing them, and it is
surely wiser to be on the safe side. Possils would be no
consolation in hell, especially as they would probably all
become metamorphic rocks.
It is most interesting and comforting to know that GocI
gave man and woman ‘1 dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth ” (Gen. i., 23). It is a little
difficult, perhaps, for a man to exercise this dominion when
his log is seized by a shark, or his body is carried off by a
tiger ; but doubtless if he reminded the animals of Gen. i.,
28, they would at once mend their ways, and restore his
property.
Gen. ii., 21, 22, are verses that have been the source of
wide-spread error—I mean of divine correction of so-called
science. Adam clearly went through life short of one rib,
and it has been generally supposed that his sons have in
herited this peculiarity, and that man has normally an
uneven number of ribs, twelve on one side and eleven on
the other, thus affording a beautiful hereditary proof of
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BIBLICAL BIOLOGY.
ancestral generosity. This pious faith has been rudely
shaken by the study of anatomy, and by the unpleasant
discovery that the number of male ribs is not odd; it now
exists only, I fear, in country villages where science classes
under South Kensington have not yet exerted their sceptic
making influence, and where people do not enquire too
curiously into their internal arrangements.
Gen. iii. presents us with a pleasant picture of inter
course with the lower animals before the fall of our first
parents brought sin into the world. What does scientific
zoology know of a talking serpent ? Can any scientist of
to-day pretend that he has ever met with a specimen able
to talk? Yet this remarkable snake talked with great
effect, and we owe to his well-directed eloquence the
inestimable blessing by which, as God said, “ the man is
become as one of us, to know good and evil” (v. 22). The
serpent in question was remarkable in ways other than his
gift of speech. After God had cursed him, he went about
as snakes do now, but before that he progressed on his
back, or his head, or his tail, in a manner since become as
old-fashioned as the minuet.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of
life, are plants quite beyond the reach of modern botany.
It would have been a priceless blessing for mankind if
Adam and Eve had smuggled some cuttings of these out
of the garden, for knowledge now has to be painfully
acquired, while life closes when experience has brought its
highest utility. It is, perhaps, comforting to know that
in the middle of the street of the throne of God and of the
Lamb, and on either side of the river, there is a tree of
life (Rev. xxii., 1, 2), which bears a different sort of fruit
every month—proving incidentally how very much horti
culture has advanced in that neighborhood—but the
thought intrudes, despite all effort, that we could dispense
with the tree of life after we have risen to immortality,
while it would be invaluable to us as mortals here. It re
quires great faith to feel that God is good in withholding
the tree of life while it would be useful, and in giving it to
us when it will be superfluous.
Gen . xxx., 37—42, gives some suggestions which breeders
of cattle will find useful. Peeled rods of green poplar,
hazel, and chesnut will influence the color of the young
of sheep and cattle. There is no reason why they should,
�BIBLICAL BIOLOGY.
■and the whole idea is absurd, but we are assured that by
this means Jacob cheated his uncle Laban in the most
scandalous manner.
The bush which burned with fire and was not consumed
(Ex. iii., 2.) and the rod which became a serpent and then
retransformed into a rod {Ibid iv., 2—4), offer much subject
for study to the pious mind, while the kinds of dust that
became lice (ZJm? viii, 16, 17), and of ashes that became
boils {Ibid ix., 8, 10), are fortunately confined to Egypt.
The cattle that were all killed of murrain {Ibid ix., 6) and
■subsequently plagued with boils {Ibid 9), and later smitten
with hail, so that they died again {Ibid 18—25), and of
which some died a third time {Ibid xii., 29), smitten by the
Lord, and others a third time drowned in the sea {Ibid
xiv., 28) are also confined to that same curious land; in
other countries animals only die once.
Lev. xi. gives some interesting facts of animal life. Nowa-days the camel’s leg does end in two toes, although not
very obvious ones, but in Moses’ time it was not so (v. 4).
The hare that chews the cud (v. 6) has become. extinct,
though all hares have a deceptive habit of munching, and
the bat is not now classified as “ a fowl” (compare verses
13 and 19). Probably at that time the bat was not a
mammal, and it has only become one since with the obj ect
of damning the scientific biologist. The “fowls that creep,
going upon all four ” (v. 20) have also become extinct,
and have left no fossils behind them to perpetuate their
memory; four-legged fowls given to creeping are wholly
unknown. So again with the “flying creeping things
which have four feet,” and go “upon all four” (verses 23,
21), such as locusts, beetles, etc. These have six legs
now-a-days, having acquired two more since the days of
Moses, and I desire to point out to scoffing sceptics that
were it not for this blessed book these remarkable quadru
pedal birds and insects would have remained unknown.
Who after this can dare to say that the Bible makes no
■contributions to science ?
I say nothing of the pregnant suggestion contained in
the reference to the flying, creeping things that “have
legs above their feet” (v. 21). To me this verse contains a
hint that at that time there existed some four-legged birds
with feet above their legs, a peculiarity that would neces
sitate a unique anatomical re-arrangement of the appen
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BIBLICAL BIOLOGY.
dages, and, to our purblind eyes, seems to present certain
difficulties in locomotion. This speculation is full of
interest, but perhaps it is dangerous to press too far
inferences from the sacred text. We must ever remember
that he who adds to the words of this holy book is cursed
with him who takes away from them (Rev. xxii., 19), but
perchance we avoid this danger by not regarding the
existence of these supracrural-footed, flying, creeping
things as a matter of faith, like that of the four-legged
fowls, but only as a pious opinion.
The Israelites must have had serious difficulties during
the period of transition between the queer beasts and
their modern namesakes. Thus a four-legged beetle was“clean” (Lev. xi., 22), but “whatsoever hath more feet
[than four] among all creeping things” was “unclean”
{Ibid. 42), as, for instance, everything now known as a
beetle. Perhaps beetles had four legs until the Jewish
ceremonial law was supplanted by Christianity, and there
upon they suddenly changed into the modern six-legged
kind. This change may have taken place even in the
time of Moses, for it is remarkable that in Deut. xiv., 19
“every creeping thing that flieth” has become unclean
and may not be eaten, and it would reconcile this apparent
contradiction if we suppose that all the insects had sud
denly developed an extra pair of legs, and so had come
under the head of flying creeping things with more legs
than four. Thus beautifully does science throw light on
the dark places in scripture, and cause apparently discord
ant texts to harmonise.
In Numbers xvii. we read of a remarkable rod which in
the space of a single night “budded and brought forth
buds, and bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds.” Sogreatly can God expedite natural processes when he wills.
Indian jugglers can now perform these marvels, but no
one would dream of being so blasphemous as to suggest
that Moses, who was “learned in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians” (Acts vii., 22), played a conjuring trick in
order to substantiate his brother’s claim to the priesthood.
The unicorn is another animal of which we should know
nothing were it not for the Bible. We find it mentioned
in Deut. xxxiii., 17, in Job xxxix., 9—12, and in Ps.
xcii., 10. There must therefore have been such an animal,
as the Holy Ghost would not talk about a non-existent
�BIBLICAL BIOLOGY.
7
creature, and yet there is not a trace of its existence out
side this book of God.
Ezekiel is a book of priceless value from our present
point of view. Who can read without his heart thrilling
of the living creatures that “had the likeness of man,”
and such a man—a man with four faces, with four wings,
with a calf’s feet, and a man’s hands, sparkling like
burnished brass, looking like burning coals of fire and like
the appearance of lamps (Ezek. i., 5—13). The likeness
is clearly not to any man of the past, so it must be to a
man of the future, and under these circumstances well
might John the Apostle say that “it doth not yet appear
what we shall be ” (1 John iii., 2). In the tenth chapter of
Ezekiel the same creatures appear again and are named
cherubims, and we learn the additional fact that “their
whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their
wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about ”
verse 12), a superfluity of visual organs that must have
been almost confusing to the possessors. Eirst cousins to
these extraordinary creatures must be the four beasts of
Revelation, who are “full of eyes within” (Rev. iv., 8),
an arrangement admirable for introspection, but otherwise
slightly unsatisfactory. I am almost inclined to think that
these four beasts are made out of one of Ezekiel’s, for a
careful comparison shows that, barring the multiplication
of wings, one beast is exactly a quarter of a cherub.
Jonah’s experiences are full of valuable biological in
formation. The whale (compare Matt, xii., 40), which was
a “great fish” (Jonah i., 17) living in the Mediterranean
Sea, and the internal arrangements of which were suitable
for swallowing a prophet and affording him lodging for
three days ; the gourd which grew up in a night, and the
worm which “smote” the gourd {Ibid iv., 6, 7)—are not
these known to and admired by every student of holy
•writ ?
Space fails to draw attention to all the biological revela
tions made in this blessed book, but I cannot pass over the
withered fig-tree without a word. As against the story
so beautifully told (Matt, xxi., 18, 19; Mark xi., 12—14,
20, 21) of this unhappy tree, on which Jesus “found
nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet,” it is
alleged by infidel critics that if the season for figs had not
•arrived it was absurd for Jesus to expect to find any, and
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BIBLICAL BIOLOGY.
they scoff at the explanation given by the true believer that
fig-trees at that time in Judsea (although at no other time
and in no other place) bore figs before they bore leaves,
and that this fig-tree was therefore guilty of false pre
tences, whereby it deceived its Creator. It is perfectly true
that now the fig-tree is covered with leaves long before its
remarkable inflorescence has ripened into fruit, but it is
clear that this particular fig-tree began at the other end
and worked backward, otherwise we should be obliged to
come to the horrible and blasphemous conclusion that Jesus
was both silly and ill-tempered, and that he behaved like
a petulant child, howling because it cannot obtain impossi
bilities.
The Revelation of St. John the Divine offers a rich feast of
creatures unknown to science; I have already mentioned
the quarter-cherubs, and we have in addition a seven
horned seven-eyed lamb (v. 6); locusts shaped like horses,
with men’s faces, women’s hair, lions’ teeth, scorpions’
tails, wearing crowns and breast-plates (ix., 7:—10) ; a red
dragon, with seven heads, ten horns, and a-wonderful tail,
who casts a flood of water out of his mouth (xii. 3, 4, 15) ;
a beast like a leopard, with seven heads and ten horns,
with a bear’s feet and a lion’s mouth, and another with two
horns, who “spake as a dragon” (xiii., 1, 2, 11), how
ever that maybe; yet another, scarlet in color, “full of
names of blasphemy,” as others were full of eyes, and
with seven heads and ten horns (xvii., 3); never was there
suclj a menagerie full of most curiously composite animals
as that seen by the beloved Apostle from “the isle that
is called Patmos ” (Rev. i., 9).
My task is ended; I have shown something of the trea
sures of biological knowledge laid up for us in this most
precious book, and I commend my humble effort to all true
believers, beseeching them to aid it by their prayers.
London : Printed by Annie Be sant and Charles Bbadlaugh,
63, Fleet Street, E.C.—1884.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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Biblical biology : a contribution to religious non-science
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Besant, Annie Wood [1847-1933]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 8 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Part of the NSS pamphlet collection. Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh.
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Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh
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1884
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Biology
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