The famous tracing of the Creator's footsteps, undertaken by a
gifted compromiser, was felt by even the most bigoted to be a lame
rejoinder. His ASTEROLEPSIS, the giant fossil-fish from the Old Red
Sandstone, the antiquity of which should show that the origin of life
was not to be found solely in "infusorial points," but that highly
developed forms were among the earliest created--this single prop was
admittedly not strong enough to carry the whole burden of proof. No, the
immutability of species had been seriously impugned, and bold minds
asked themselves why a single act of creation, at the outset, should not
constitute as divine an origin of life as a continued series of
"creative fiats."
Mahony was one of them. The "development theory" did not repel him. He
could see no impiety in believing that life, once established on the
earth, had been left to perfect itself. Or hold that this would
represent the Divine Author of all things as, after one master-stroke,
dreaming away eternal ages in apathy and indifference. Why should the
perfect functioning of natural law not be as convincing an expression of
God's presence as a series of cataclysmic acts of creation?
None the less it was a time of crisis, for him, as for so many. For, if
this were so, if science spoke true that, the miracle of life set a-going,
there had been no further intervention on the part of the
Creator, then the very head-and-corner stone of the Christian faith, the
Bible itself, was shaken.
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