I believe man . . . in the same predicament with other animals.

I believe that animals have descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number.

Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work.

Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy of the interposition of a deity. More humble, and I believe truer, to consider him created from animals.

Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends.

That there is much suffering in the world no one disputes. Which is more likely, that pain and evil are the result of an all-powerful and good God, or the product of uncaring natural forces? The presence of much suffering agrees well with the view that all organic beings have been developed through variation and natural selection.