Adversaries deny the creation of the world. Among this category are Materialist Monism, Pantheistic Monism, Positivists, Agnostics, Atheists and Aristotle.⁷

Adversaries deny cosmic evolution which involves some orderly and predictable development based on some higher intelligence.⁸ Some favor Materialistic Causality such as Democritus, Leucippus, Epicurus, Lucretius, (and the 18^th century Materialists) Helvetius, Diderot, and Toland. Some are Material Fatalists who maintain only matter and its forces which cause inviolable laws: Moleschot, Vogt, Buchner, Strauss, and Feuerbach. Some are Metaphysical Fatalists who identify God with the cosmos: Schopenhauer and E. Hartmann. The Subjectivists, like Kant, who admits finality but only subjectively, would deny cosmic evolution. Descartes and Francis Bacon, who admit finality but maintain it must not be investigated, reject true cosmic evolution.

Adversaries deny the termination, or the end, of the universe. Among these are those who hold the eternal duration of the universe which was the teaching of Hesiod, Plato, and many other ancients.⁹

Eternal duration of the world is held by the Pantheists who profess the world evolving from God, and especially those who see God evolving from the world.¹⁰ Also, an eternal world fits the system of Active Evolution where matter is eternal, as professed by Strauss, Buchner, and Haeckel.¹¹ The eternal world is held by Hylozoism, professing one soul for the whole world, with fixed and evolving rules, and lasting eternally.¹²

Adversaries who reject the possibility of cosmic evolution make it clear that the thesis proposed is a serious subject for discussion. The thesis proposed and defended as true presents an objective problem worthy of dialogue. Adversaries who seriously contradict the proposal in this chapter deserve respect. These adversaries have reasons for their position. In every false position there is some truth. In dialogue, every attempt should be made to clarify that truth. In this case, cosmic evolution is observable in the order of the universe where parts are hierarchically arraigned¹³; cosmic evolution does not deny God who acts through secondary causes;¹⁴ and cosmic evolution benefits man (the Antropic Principle).¹⁵ Accordingly, even if our proposal and its proofs demonstrate the adversaries wrong, their reasoning can be understood and respected.