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SCIENCE
past; and the experience that proves this is not that: of any particular man or woman, nor of any particular class or body of men, but of the whole of the human race without a single exception. For whatever people may think or hold about the origin of the world and the theory of creation, not one man can be found who claims to know, from direct personal observation, that things can arise from or vanish into nothing
The Law of Constancy of nature means that substance is eternal so that whatever really and truly exists can never be destroyed. When a thing seems to have disappeared, it has merely changed its form, but has not been altogether wiped out of existence, 6.8., a piece of sugar that has melted in water or milk has merely changed its form, having passed from the solid into a liquid state. Similarly, a shower of rain is simply the moisture of the atmosphere cast down in the form of drops of water; it certainly is not produced from nothing by a god working from behind the clouds. Water evaporates by boiling, and vapour becomes liquid again by passing through colder temperature. As Haeckel points out, nowhere in nature do we find an example of the production, or 'creation', of new mattor ; nowhere does a particle of existing matter pass entirely away. "This empirical truth is now the unquestionable foundation of chemistry; it may be directly verified at any moment by means of the balance" (The Riddle of the Universe).
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