Sciences and religions in the late modern period

The “Darwinists” assert that if existing animal species were to be organised according to the similarities they exhibit, the slight differences between them would get noted and the transformation and evolution from one species to the other be observed. Let it be noted that Al-Mashrîq makes no mention here of Darwin's assertion that “intermediate species” cannot survive.

Al-Mashrîq's response: It is impossible to dispute the patent similarity between the species within a genus. To be sure the observer would note some degree of progression, as do indeed some scientists who dispute the Darwinian theory of natural selection, vital adaptation and man's animal descent. However it has not been possible to prove this progression by earlier discoveries, no matter the breadth of generations. Geologists have found in the same soil the varied skeletons of dogs, wolves and jackals from the earliest era in which these similar types appeared, without being able to prove that either had issued forth from the others or their transformation. Therefore, deciding that species are similar according to their outward appearance or their internal organs revealed by dissection is not enough to explain evolution. Furthermore, it is necessary to take into account their behaviour, habits, particular instincts. Now the Darwinists, having constructed their theory from the mere observation of species displayed in museums have courted error. Indeed, it would be erroneous to confuse, say in the ursidae family, carnivorous with herbivorous bears or, among the rodents, harvest-pest rats and mice with insect-eating shrews. The laws of Darwinian evolution must apply besides to the invertebrates, notably the insects with each their own reproductive and nutritive pattern, from egg to larva to pupa to adult as may apply to bees, flies or moths, at a time when nobody could tell when the mutation that generated other species took place. It follows that the study of animals is a new realm insufficiently investigated by Darwin. Had he done so, he would have seen the errors of his way.