One of the devil’s greatest tricks is to shift the burden of proof from the challenger of God’s Word to its defender. If the Guardians of the Faith had not allowed satan and his agents to do this on a grand scale in the early days of the Evolution Revolution, evolution-based modernism would never have been able to take over most of our institutions. One Catholic intellectual who refused to be fooled by the devil’s tactic in the early days of the Revolution was perhaps the greatest lay apologist in American history, the self-taught New England convert Orestes Brownson (1803-1876).
Orestes Brownson
Brownson entered the Church after having earned a stellar reputation as an original writer and thinker, a member of the intellectual circle that included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. His Review offered a bold and uncompromising defense of the Catholic Faith which earned the respect and admiration of the entire episcopate. On May 13, 1849, Brownson received a letter from Bishop Kenrick of Philadelphia, signed by the Archbishop of Baltimore and by all of the American Bishops in attendance at the Council of Baltimore in 1849, to encourage him by their "approbation and influence" to continue his "literary labors in defense of the faith." The fact that Brownson later lost the support of many of the Bishops when he rightly upheld the authority of the Church above that of the state in her proper sphere does not diminish the extraordinary character of this recognition by all of the American bishops of his skill as an apologist. When Charles Darwin published his speculations on the origins of man and living things, beginning with his Origin of Species and continuing with the Descent of Man, Brownson recognized immediately that the Emperor of Evolution was naked but that his nakedness needed to be exposed swiftly, lest the world begin to admire the magnificence of the Emperor's New Clothes as described by the disciples of Darwin. Brownson's critique of Darwin's Descent of Man rings as true today as when he penned it one hundred and fifty years ago.
Brownson begins his critique of Darwin by exposing his failure to provide any actual evidence for his hypothesis—in terms that remain as valid today as they were 150 years ago. He writes:
We have read Mr. Darwin’s books with some care, and, though not an absolute stranger to the subject he treats, or to the facts he narrates, we are a little surprised that even a professed scientist could put forth such a mass of unwarranted inductions and unfounded conjectures as science. Not one nor all of the facts he adduces, prove the species originate in natural or artificial selection. In all his inductions he is obliged to assume the progress of the species as the principle of his induction, while he ought to know that the assumption of the progress of the species negatives the origin of species in selection. But, and this is fatal to his theory, he nowhere adduces a single fact that proves the species is progressive, or a single instance in which a lower species by its struggles for life, as he pretends, approaches a higher species, or in which the individuals of a lower species lose any of the characteristics of their species, and acquire those of a higher or a different species.
After exposing Darwin’s abject failure to provide any solid evidence for his hypothesis, Brownson takes the offensive and places the burden of proof where it should always be—on anyone who challenges the Word of God in Genesis as it has been understood in God’s Church from the beginning.
Mr. Darwin, though his theory is not original with him, and we were familiar with it even in our youth, overlooks the fact that it denies the doctrine of the creation and immutability of species, as taught in Genesis, where we read that God said: “Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was done.” “And God created the great whales and every living and moving creature which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind.” “And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and everything thing that creepeth on the earth.” Genesis I, 11,21,25. Now this doctrine, the doctrine of the whole Christian world, and which stands directly opposed to Mr. Darwin’s theory, is, as say the lawyers, in possession, and therefore to be held as true until the contrary is proved. It is not enough, then, for Mr. Darwin to set forth his theory and ask us as Christians, as believers in Genesis, to accept it, unless able to disprove it; nor is it enough for him even to prove that it may be true. The onus probandi is on him who arraigns the faith and convictions of the Christian world, which are the faith and convictions of enlightened and living mankind. He must prove his theory not only may be, but is, true, and prove it with scientific or apodictic certainty, for only by so doing can he oust the Christian doctrine from its possession, or overcome the presumption in its favor; and till he has ousted and made away with that doctrine, his theory cannot be legally or logically entertained even as a probable hypothesis. This he hardly pretends to have done. As far as we can discover, he does not claim apodictic certainty for his theory, or profess to set it forth for anything more than a probable hypothesis, which he leads us to suspect he hardly believes himself. But in the present case we must prove it to be true and indubitable, or he has no right to publish it at all, not even as probable; for probable it is not, so long as it is not certain that the Christian doctrine in possession is false.
This principle, which is the principle both of ethics and logic, is disregarded by nearly the whole herd of contemporary scientists. They make a point of ignoring Christianity, and proceed as if they were perfectly free to put forth as science any number of theories, hypotheses, conjectures, guesses, which directly contradict it, as if they were under no obligation to consult the universal faith of mankind; and theories too, not one of which, even if plausible, is proved to be true, or deserving the name of science. We by no means contend that the general belief of mankind, or the consensus hominum, is in itself an infallible criterion of truth; but we do maintain that it is, as the lawyers say, prima facie evidence, or a vehement presumption of truth, and that no man has the moral right to publish any opinions, or uncertain theories or hypotheses, that are opposed to it. It can be overruled by science that is science, by the truth that is demonstrated to be truth, and which cannot be gainsaid. He who assails it may plead the truth, if he has it, in justification; but not an uncertain opinion, not an unproved theory, or an unverified hypothesis, however plausible or even probable it may appear to himself. Sincerity, or firmness of conviction on the part of the defenders of the adverse theory or hypothesis, is no justification, no excuse even; and no one has any right to assail or contradict the Christian faith, unless he has infallible authority for the truth of what he alleges in opposition to it. And this no scientist has or can have.
Moses
We respect science and bow to its authority, if it really be science; but the theories, hypotheses, and even the inductions of the scientists from the few facts they have observed, are not science, are at best only unverified opinions. Induction is simply generalization, and cannot of itself give anything beyond the simple facts generalized. It can only attain to what scientists call a law, which is itself only a fact, not a principle. We can never attain the principle by induction, because without it no valid induction is possible, any more than there is a valid conclusion without a medius terminus. Without the principle of causality no induction is possible, and this principle is either falsified or denied by all professed scientists with whom we have any acquaintance. We therefore treat as uncertain all their inductions and theories so insolently put forth as science, whenever they go beyond the sphere in which they can be brought to a crucial test and practically verified: and such are all those which oppose the doctrines of divine revelation, as believed and taught by the Holy Scriptures and the church of God.
It is not too late for us to learn from our mistakes and to follow Orestes Brownson’s good example. Let us ask Our Lady of Victories to obtain for us the grace never to let Catholics who depart from the traditional Catholic reading of Genesis 1-11 shift the burden of proof to us. Rather, let us always remind them in charity that it is they who are obliged by the constant teaching of the Magisterium to prove that “reason dictates or necessity requires” that the literal and obvious sense of the sacred history of Genesis be abandoned. The burden of proof rests with them—and it is a burden of proof that no one in the history of the Church has ever come close to meeting.
Through the prayers of the Mother of God, may the Holy Ghost lead us all into all the Truth!
In Domino,
Hugh Owen
P.S. These seminars will take place in the next few days. Please keep them in your prayers.
Saturday, September 23, 2023, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.,
Presenters: Pamela Acker and Hugh Owen:
“The Traditional Catholic Doctrine of Creation: The Only Firm Foundation for a Culture of Life”
St. Rafka Maronite Catholic Church
1215 S Highway 14
Greer, SC 29650-2412
Tuesday, September 26
Pamela Acker and Hugh Owen
“The Traditional Catholic Doctrine of Creation: The Only Firm Foundation for a Culture of Life”
4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
St. Elizabeth Catholic Church
259 Pilgrims Way
Boone, NC
2-DAY SEMINAR
SEPTEMBER 29 & 30
Pamela Acker and Hugh Owen
THOMAS AQUINAS PARISH
Aquinas Hall
1400 Suther Road, Charlotte, NC
Friday, September 29
7:00 - 8:30 Hugh Owen - "The Traditional Catholic Doctrine of Creation: The Foundation of our Holy Catholic Faith"
8:30 -9:00 - Q and A
Saturday September 30: 9am – 4:00pm (10am Mass - Ordinary Form/English)
9:00 - 9:50 - Pamela Acker - The Icons of Evolution
10:00 – 10:45 – Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
11:00 - 11:50 - Hugh Owen - Evidence for a Global Flood and Its Importance for Our Times
12:00 – 12:30 - Lunch
12:30 - 1:20 - Pamela Acker - Genetic Entropy: The End of Biological Evolution
1:30 - 2:20 - Hugh Owen - “Russia Will Spread Its Errors": Evolution and the Anti-Culture of Death
2:30 - 3:20 - Pamela Acker - Biological Evidence for the Biblical Chronology of Earth's History
3:30 - 4:00 - Hugh Owen - The Difference It Makes: The Restoration of the Doctrine of Creation, the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Flowering of a Culture of Life
