Page 98 - Satan's Sly Game: The False Religion of People-Worship

SATAN'S SLY GAME:
THE FALSE RELIGION OF PEOPLE-WORSHIP

medieval times, spontaneous generation, which asserts that non-
living materials came together to form living organisms, had
been 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 be-
lieved that mice 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 ex-
periments, that disproved spontaneous generation, a corner-
stone of Darwin's theory. In his triumphal lecture at the
Sorbonne in 1864, Pasteur said: "Never will the doctrine of
spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck
by this simple experiment." 1
For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution resisted
these findings. However, as the development of science unrav-
eled the complex structure of the cell of a living being, the idea
that life could come into being coincidentally faced an even
greater impasse.

Inconclusive Efforts of the Twentieth Century

The first evolutionist who took up the subject of the origin of

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