But anthropology has shown that human beings existed far back in geological time, and in a savage state but little better than that of the brute.
Many good and well-meaning men have attempted to reconcile the statements of Genesis with the discoveries of science, but it is in vain.

The divergence has increased so much, that it has become an absolute opposition.

One of the antagonists must give way.
May we not, then, be permitted to examine the authenticity of this book, which, since the second century, has been put forth as the criterion of scientific truth?
To maintain itself in a position so exalted, it must challenge human criticism.
In the early Christian ages, many of the most eminent Fathers of the Church had serious doubts respecting the authorship of the entire Pentateuch.

I have not space, in the limited compass of these pages, to present in detail the facts and arguments that were then and have since been adduced.

The literature of the subject is now very extensive.