The Theories of Darwin and Their Relation to Philosophy, Religion, and Morality

The Theories of Darwin and
Their Relation
by Rudolf
Schmid

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Title: The Theories of Darwin and Their Relation to Philosophy,
Religion, and Morality
Author: Rudolf Schmid
Translator: G. A. Zimmermann
Release Date: July 26, 2007 [EBook #22150]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE THEORIES OF DARWIN.
HALL, STUTTGART, April 5, 1880.
We hereby authorize the Rev. Dr. G. A. Zimmermann to translate into
English the book entitled
Die Darwin'schen Theorien und ihre Stellung zur Philosophie, Religion
und Moral von Rudolf Schmid.
We declare that we know of no other translation of the said book and
that Dr. Zimmermann's translation will be the only one authorized by
us for the United States as well as for the British Empire and its
Dominions.
(The Author) RUDOLF SCHMID.
(The Publisher) PAUL MOSER.
* * * * *
THE
THEORIES OF DARWIN
AND THEIR RELATION TO
PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION AND MORALITY.
By RUDOLF SCHMID, President of the Theological Seminary at

Schönthal, Würtemberg.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY G. A. ZIMMERMANN,
PH.D.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE DUKE OF ARGYLL
CHICAGO: JANSEN McCLURG. & COMPANY 1883.
* * * * *
COPYRIGHT BY JANSEN, MCCLURG & CO. A.D. 1882.
R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS, PRINTERS.
* * * * * {1}
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
* * * * *
The movement which received its impulse as well as its name from
Darwin, seems to have recently passed its distinctest phase; but the
more prominent points of opposition, religious, ethical, and scientific,
which have been revealed through it, remain as sharply contrasted as
before. The author of this book desires, in the first place, to be of
service to such readers as feel the need of setting themselves right upon
these questions, which touch the highest interests of mankind, but who
lack time and opportunity to investigate independently a realm in which
so many and so heterogeneous sciences come into mutual contact. The
illogical and confused manner in which some noisy leaders confound
these sciences and their problems and consequences, renders it still
more difficult to arrive at a satisfactory result; and thus perhaps many
readers will look with interest upon an investigation designed to
simplify the different problems and the different attempts at their
solution, and to treat them not only in their relations to each other, but
also separately. But with this primary object, the author combines
another: to render a service to some among the many who perceive the

harmony between their scientific conviction and their religious need
threatened or shaken by the results of science, and who are unwilling to
lose this harmony, or, having lost it, desire to regain it. Those voices
are indeed becoming louder, and more generally and willingly heard,
which proclaim an irreconcilability between faith and {2} knowledge,
between the religious and the scientific views of the world; which
declare that peace between the two can only be had at the price either
of permitting the religious impulses of the heart to be stifled in favor of
science, of satisfying the religious need of the mind with a nourishment
which in the light of science proves to be an illusion, or, as sceptics in
theory and eclectics in practice, of renouncing with resignation a
logical connection and foundation to their former view of the world.
The most striking proof of the extent to which these voices are heard, is
the fact that it has been possible for a one-sided pessimism to become
the fashionable system of philosophy in a Christian nation. The most
effective means for opposing such discordant voices, and for making
amends for the disagreements which they have occasioned,
undoubtedly consists in the actual proof of the contrary of their theories,
in the clear presentation of a standpoint from which not only the most
unrestricted freedom of investigation and the most unreserved
acknowledgment of its results shall be in perfect harmony with the
undiminished care of our entire religious possession, but in which this
peace is preserved and forever established by the very fact that one
function of the mind directly requires the other, one