84 TEACHING SCIENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man became a living soul."
 What is "the dust of the ground"? What is the breath of
life"? What is "a living soul"?
 All living nature contains "the dust of the ground." Plants
and animals alike are composed of the same mineral elements.
It is a striking part of the Creator's plan that all life should thus
be related, and none claims special chemical elements.
 Man's body is no exception to this relationship to "dust."
His ashes are essentially the same as those of the plants on which
he feeds. Man's body, too, has the common organs of all the
higher animals-the skeleton, muscles, heart, lungs, and others.
There is a striking similarity in the arrangement of these organs
in man and the higher apes. The composition of the blood is
similar, even to the "blood types" and reactions to chemicals
used for testing blood stains. Some monkeys' faces look un-
becomingly like "people we know."
 There is no use arguing against the obvious resemblances of
the human body to the monkeys, other animals, and to plants in
countless respects. To the sincere interpreter this implies a com-
mon Creator of them all. There is no reason for man to be
ashamed of his kinship to the other objects of His handiwork.
 The teachings of science, stated simply, are that a long devel-
 opment or evolution brought about the present varieties of
 plants and animals instead of an instantaneous creation. Let's
 remember that we teach theories. This is consistent with the
 evidence of the great age of rocks, and the ceaseless grinding of
 the sea upon the land for eons of time. After plants and animals
 were well established upon the earth, one of these creatures may
 have been selected by its Creator as possessing a body that might
 suitably house "a living soul." There was no need to create an
 entirely new form-neither plant nor animal, without skin or
 muscle, lacking heart and lungs-to carry this "soul." The deci-
 sion was the Creator's! The highest body that wisdom had
 formed was selected; this body is considered by science to have
 been a common ancestor of both the apes and men.