The Theory of Evolution - A Sensualistic Philosophy

Atheism has attempted to proceed thus : It admits that, inasmuch as beings now exist , beings must have eternally been in existence . But, it asks , why may not the eternal somethings have been caused somethings , such as those we see around us ; separated from us in duration by an infinite number of intermediate links in chains of similar beings ? To this scheine of a self existent infinite series, uncaused from without, philosophy advances these insuperable objections: That in such a series no immediate antecedent is , by itself, adequate cause for its immediate successor ; and that ,
previous links in the chain could not be cause, since they were totally absent from the rise of the sequent effect.