UNDOUBTEDLY the usual conception of God as
Creator and Ruler is that he is a supernatural
being, a Great and Good Man in the skies, who
created the universe out of nothing, set it going, and
watches over it to see that it goes right; that he
established natural laws by his word but now and
again suspends them in order to accomplish par-
ticular purposes or to benefit his worshippers. The
scientific conception of nature and of the univer-
sality of natural law conflicts with this idea, but
it does not deny the existence of that which is
symbolized by the word "God." Many scientific
generalizations have been condemned as atheistic
because they substitute natural processes for super-
natural volitions, and chief among these is the
theory of evolution.

There has long been a wide-spread misunder-
standing in the popular mind regarding evolution.
That it is a great scientific question is rarely con-
sidered; that it is the only attempt to solve by
natural processes the problem of the origin of organ-
isms is wholly disregarded. It is frequently looked
upon, not as a law of nature, but as "an invention
whereby it is hoped to get rid of a God." Even

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