Page 83 - The Pains of the False World

THE DECEPTION OF EVOLUTION

medieval times, spontaneous generation, which asserts that non-
living materials came together to form living organisms, had be-
en widely accepted. It was commonly believed that insects came
into being from food leftovers, and mice from wheat. Interesting
experiments were conducted to prove this theory. Some wheat
was placed on a dirty piece of cloth, and it was believed that mi-
ce would originate from it after a while.
Similarly, maggots developing in rotting meat was assumed

to be evidence of spontaneous generation. However, it was later
understood that worms did not appear on meat spontaneously,
but were carried there by flies in the form of larvae, invisible to
the naked eye.
Even when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the belief that
bacteria could come into existence from non-living matter was
widely accepted in the world of science.
However, five years after the publication of Darwin's book,
Louis Pasteur announced his results after long studies and expe-
riments, that disproved spontaneous generation, a cornerstone
of Darwin's theory. In his triumphal lecture at the Sorbonne in
1864, Pasteur said: "Never will the doctrine of spontaneous gene-
ration recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experi-
ment." 1

For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution resisted
these findings. However, as the development of science unrave-
led the complex stru c t u re of the cell of a living being, the idea
that life could come into being coincidentally faced an even gre-
ater impasse.

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