Thomas Huxley was a humanist who lived during the time of Darwin and, in fact, became known as "Darwin's bulldog" because he did more to popularize Darwin's ideas than Darwin himself. He wanted to tear down Christianity at every turn; and as theologians of his day compromised the authority of Scripture by adding a belief in millions of years and evolution to the Bible, Huxley used that compromise against them.
In Ken Ham's words...
"What was Huxley's point? He insisted that the theologians had to accept evolution and millions of years, but he pointed out that, to be consistent, they had to give up the Bible totally. Compromise is impossible."
~ Ken Ham,
in The New Answers Book 1
Here is a quote from Huxley himself, written about 113 years ago; and hopefully that background info will help it make more sense...
I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how anyone, for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures. The very conception of the Messiah, or Christ, is inextricably interwoven with Jewish history; the identification of Jesus of Nazareth with that Messiah rests upon the interpretation of the passages of the Hebrew Scriptures which have no evidential value unless they possess the historical character assigned to them. If the covenant with Abraham was not made; if circumcision and sacrifices were not ordained by Jahveh; if the 'ten words' were not written by God's hand on the stone tables; if Abraham is more or less a mythical hero, such as Theseus; the Story of the Deluge a fiction; that of the Fall a legend; and that of the Creation the dream of a seer; if all these definite and detailed narratives of apparently real events have no more value as history than have the stories of the regal period of Rome--what is to be said about the Messianic doctrine, which is so much less clearly enunciated: And what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fictions for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands?
~ Thomas Huxley,
in his essay "Lights of the Church and Science"
Your word is truth.
~ John 17:17
