Page 49 - The Religion of Darwinism

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so to speak... Moreover, new creatures were constantly appearing
at the bottom of the Chain, arising from inorganic matter through
spontaneous generation... Ascent of the Chain involved a
continuous process of complexification, due to the so-called
"power of life." 33

As one can clearly see, what is called the "theory of evolution" is
really a transferal to modern times of the ancient Greek myth of the
Great Chain of Being. There were evolutionists before Darwin, and
most of their ideas and so-called proofs were already found in the
concept of the Great Chain of Being. With de Buffon and Lamarck, the
Great Chain was offered to the scientific world in a new form which
influenced Darwin.
Indeed, Darwin was influenced by this idea to the extent that he
based his whole theory on its basic logic. In the book Darwin's
Century, Loren Eiseley points out that Darwin made use of the 18th
century concept of the scale of existence in his book The Origin of
Species and that the idea that whole organic matter tended inevitably
to "progress toward perfection" finds its origin there. 34
Therefore, Darwin did not propose a new theory. What he did
was nothing more than to give it new expression in contemporary
scientific language. Based on a few deceptive observations, a religion
going back to the pagan myths of the
Sumerians and ancient Greeks was
sustained. It was enhanced in
the 17th and 18th centuries
with new additions by
many scientists. Later,

De Buffon and his 44-volume
work Histoire Naturelle, which
takes its inspiration from
ancient pagan mythology.