A. Do astrological signs influence our lives?
B. Will earth have an end?
C. Did each animal species come from a primary couple or from many couples created, or, if you will, germinated simultaneously in different places?
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449. The incrustation theory - We will mention this theory only to make note of it because there is nothing scientific about it; nonetheless, it has caused certain repercussions lately and has seduced a few people. It is summarized as follows: the planet Asia brought us the yellow race; Africa, the black race; Europe, the white race; and America, the red race.
450. This theory has the most positive data of experimental science against it; moreover, it ignores the whole issue of the origin it claims to resolve. It states how the earth might have been formed, but it does not state how the four worlds that came together.
451. If things had happened this way, why can’t we find traces of the enormous melding that must have extended to the entrails of the globe? Each one of those worlds – Asia, Africa, Europe and America – upon bringing their own matter would have had a particularly different geology, which is not the case.
452. On the contrary, we see first of all that the granite nucleus is uniform, of a homogenous composition in all parts of the globe and without break in continuity. Secondly, the geological strata of the same formation, identical in composition and superposed everywhere in the same order, continue without interruption from one side of the oceans to the other, from Europe to Asia, from Africa to the Americas, reciprocally. These layers, which testify to the transformations of the globe, verify that such transformations occurred all over the surface and not only on one part.
453. This theory has seduced a few people because it seems to explain the presence on the earth of the different human races and their localization. However, since these races could originate on those separate worlds, why couldn’t they have done so at several points of the same globe? The theory tries to resolve one problem creating an even bigger one.
454. The soul of the earth - The soul of the earth plays a principal role in the incrustation theory. But the idea of the soul of the Earth has to be mustered between systematic and chimeric conceptions. By soul of the earth, one might more rationally understand the idea of a collectivity of spirits in charge of developing and guiding its constitutive elements, which already supposes a certain degree of intellectual development; or better yet, the spirit to whom the lofty guidance of the moral destinies and progress of its inhabitants has been entrusted, a mission that could only be attributed to a being eminently superior in wisdom and knowledge. In this case, this spirit is not, properly speaking, the soul of the earth, since it is neither incarnated within it nor subordinated to its material state. It is a leader in charge of its direction, like a general is in charge of conducting an army.
455. A spirit charged with a mission as important as governing a world could not be capricious; otherwise, God would be very improvident to entrust the execution of God’s laws to a being capable of transgressing them through his/her ill will. Now then, according to the incrustation doctrine, it would have been the ill will of the soul of the moon that would have caused the earth to remain incomplete. These ideas are self-refuting (see Revue Spirite, Sep. 1868, p. 261).
456. Chapter IX - General or partial transformations - The geological periods point out the phases of the general appearance of the globe resulting from its transformations. However, except for the diluvial period (which was characterized by a sudden upheaval), all the others occurred slowly and without a brusque transition.
457. Throughout the time the globe’s constituent elements took to settle into their final positions, changes must have been of a general order. Once the base consolidated, only partial modifications occurred on the surface.
458. Besides the general upheaval, the earth experienced a large number of local disturbances that changed the appearance of certain regions. As with all the other disturbances, two causes contributed to them: fire and water.
459. Fire: whether by the volcanic eruptions that buried surrounding terrains under thick layers of ash and lava, engulfing villages and their inhabitants; whether by earthquakes or by upthrusts of the solid crust, driving the waters back to the lowest areas; or whether by the sinking of the crust in certain places to a greater or lesser extent, into which the waters flowed leaving other lands uncovered. This is what caused islands to emerge in the middle of the ocean, while others disappeared, how portions of “continents separated to form islands, and how dried up arms of the ocean joined islands to continents.
460. Water: whether by the invasion or retreat of the oceans in certain coastal areas; whether by collapses, which, holding back the course of the waters, formed lakes; whether by overflowing and inundation; or whether by deposits that formed at the mouths of rivers. In drawing back the ocean, these deposits formed new regions: such is the origin of the Nile delta in Lower Egypt, and the Rhone or Camargue delta.
461. The age of the mountains - By examining the terrains torn up by the upthrust of the mountains and the layers that formed the foothills, it is possible to determine their geological age. By geological age of the mountains one ought not to understand it to mean the number of years of their existence, but rather the period during which they were formed, and therefore their relative ancientness.
462. Thus, it has been established by observation that the mountains of Vosges in Brittany, and Côte-d’Or in France – none of which are very high – belong to the oldest formations. These date from “The transition period” and formed prior to the coal deposits. The Juras formed during the middle of the secondary period and were contemporaneous with the giant reptiles. The Pyrenees formed much later, toward the beginning of the tertiary period. Mont Blanc and the western Alps came after the Pyrenees and date from the middle of the tertiary period. The eastern Alps, which include the mountains of Tyrol, are even more recent because they formed only toward the end of the tertiary period. Some of the mountains in Asia are posterior to the diluvial period or are contemporaneous with it.
463. These upheavals must have caused huge localized disturbances and more or less considerable floods due to the displacement of the waters and the interruption and change of river courses.
Answers to Proposed Questions
A. Do astrological signs influence our lives?
No. We have seen that the precession of the equinoxes leads to another change, which operates on the position of the signs of the Zodiac. According to the month in which an individual is born, it is said that he or she was born under such and such sign; hence, the predictions of astrology. However, due to the precession of the equinoxes, it just so happens that the months no longer correspond to the same constellations.(1) Moreover, the groups to which were given the name constellations are only apparent groupings caused by distance; their shapes are the effects of perspective. In reality, such groupings do not exist. Since these groups exist only in appearance, the significance that a superstitious common belief attributes to them is illusory and their influence could exist only in the imagination. (Genesis, Chap. IX, Section 8 and note 4 to Kardec, and Chap. V, item 12)
B. Will earth have an end?
This still remains in the field of supposition; however since it still is far away from the perfection that it can reach and old age that would indicate its decline, its current inhabitants can rest assured that it will not happen during their lifetime. (Genesis, Ch. IX, item 13)
C. Did each animal species come from a primary couple or from many couples created, or, if you will, germinated simultaneously in different places?
This latter supposition is the most probable; we might even say that it results from observation. In fact, the study of the geological layers attests to the presence – in terrains of similar formation and across vast areas – of the same species on the farthest apart points of the globe. Such generalized and somewhat contemporaneous multiplication would have been impossible with one single primitive type. Additionally, the life of one individual (especially an emerging individual) is subject to so many eventualities that an entire creation could have been compromised if not from the plurality of types, which would imply an unacceptable improvidence on the part of the Supreme Creator. Moreover, if a particular type could have been formed at one point, it could have been formed at many points by the same cause. Hence, everything concurs in demonstrating that there was a simultaneous and multiple creations of the first couples for each animal and plant species. (Genesis, Ch. X, items 1 and 2)
Note:
(1) According to today's data, we know that the movement designated as the precession of the equinoxes does not interfere with the seasons, since the Earth's axis of rotation maintains its 23.5°. What occurs is a change in the position in which the Earth is in orbit around the Sun at a given station. [Note made by the scholar Luiz Gonzaga Pinheiro, author of Apelos do Tempo (Appeals of Time), published by IDEAS @ WORK.]
