Page 113 - Quick Grasp of Faith 2

ture. Since medieval times, spontaneous generation, which
asserts that non-living materials came together to form liv-
ing organisms, had been widely accepted. It was commonly
believed that insects came into being from food leftovers,
and mice from wheat. Interesting experiments were con-
ducted to prove this theory. Some wheat was placed on a
dirty piece of cloth, and it was believed that mice would
originate from it after a while.
Similarly, maggots developing in rotting meat was as-
sumed 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 mat-
ter 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 stud-
ies and experiments, that disproved spontaneous genera-
tion, a cornerstone 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 re-
sisted these findings. However, as the development of sci-
ence unraveled 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 ori-

113
HARUN YAHYA