He affirmed that there had been a deluge, which covered the whole earth above the tops of the highest mountains, and that the waters of this flood were removed by a wind.

Correct ideas respecting the dimensions of the atmosphere, and of the sea, and of the operation of evaporation, proved how untenable these statements are.

Of the progenitors of the human race, he declared that they had come from their Maker's hand perfect, both in body and mind, and had subsequently experienced a fall.
He is now considering how best to dispose of the evidence continually accumulating respecting the savage condition of prehistoric man.
Is it at all surprising that the number of those who hold the opinions of the Church in light esteem should so rapidly increase?
How can that be received as a trustworthy guide in the invisible, which falls into so many errors in the visible?
How can that give confidence in the moral, the spiritual, which has so signally failed in the physical?
It is not possible to dispose of these conflicting facts as "empty shadows," "vain devices," "fictions coming from knowledge falsely so called," "errors wearing the deceitful appearance of truth," as the Church stigmatizes them.

On the contrary, they are stern witnesses, bearing emphatic and unimpeachable testimony against the ecclesiastical claim to infallibility, and fastening a conviction of ignorance and blindness upon her.
Convicted of so many errors, the papacy makes no attempt at explanation.
It ignores the whole matter Nay, more, relying on the efficacy of audacity, though confronted by these facts, it lays claim to infallibility.
SEPARATION OF CATHOLICISM AND CIVILIZATION.

But, to the pontiff, no other rights can be conceded than those he can establish at the bar of Reason.