But let us suppose that I am wrong to think that cumulative selection, which is not only necessary but is the very condition for Evolution to take place, could come into existence only with an undercurrent of a desire for life. Let us suppose it came into being in a purely mechanical way; after all, when I was a student, the lecturer told us with great excitement that they had just crystallized the tobacco-mosaic virus. So this substance, whatever it was, had some of the properties of life inasmuch as it could reproduce itself and spread as a parasite on the tobacco plant; yet it had some of the properties of an old-fashioned chemical in that it had a regular structure, otherwise it could never have formed a crystal lattice, without which crystals cannot grow. Let us suppose, due to the wonderful process of cumulative selection, life began in a purely mechanical, or chemical way.
And for simplicity let us imagine we are still in the stage of primitive life, and that there are two moulds growing over the face of the earth; one by chance dedicated to the process of cumulative selection, a kind of virile “Herrnvolk” mould; and the other a decadent happy-go-lucky mould which just wanted an easy life. They lived side by side, until suddenly the whole earth was filled; and either physical space or the earth’s limited resources brought things to a crisis. Something had to happen. You might have thought that in a completely meaningless world, life would simply have smothered itself, rather like someone putting a pillow on a baby’s face. But no; what happened was that the virile virus decimated the effeminate virus, and the struggle for life began in earnest. From that moment, there was an undercurrent in Evolution of the desire for life and for survival, and later on for a sense of purpose as well.
You could be forgiven for thinking that this was the ingenious way the Divine Creator chose to instil a sense of purpose and a love of life into His Creation. But you would be wrong; it was all mechanical, and this sense of purpose that the virile mould enjoyed, and flattered itself was part of its heroic achievement, was pure illusion. And so when eventually man appeared, his sense of purpose too was pure illusion, foisted on him by a combination of limited space, and the greater efficiency of cumulative selection.
Then suddenly, well relatively suddenly, Man conceived the idea of God. It began with the idea of river and forest gods, but we can skip all that; and go to the moment when Man conceived the idea of a personal God, whom he could worship, and who was concerned in some way about him. Pure illusion of course; but man’s vanity is such that he is sure in his mental dreams (because that is all they are) that there must be a God who deigns to notice him, and that gives man an added sense of self-importance.