Every geological formation which is investigated helps to prove these statements concerning the beginning of serpent, bird, beast, and vegetable life. They combine with other facts of nature to prove that the water did "bring forth abundantly" and that the earth yielded "after its kind." If you want to believe the theory of spontaneous life, that is all right. If you prefer the idea of life transference from planet to planet, that is your privilege. If either is the origin of life, God is responsible for it, and He likes to have men develop their brain by studying His creations. The point is that I can conceive no plainer and truer method than that of Moses, in which to picture to an enslaved and superstitious people the story of the beginning of the world.

From What Other Writers Said About Natural History And Fossils Of Ancient Animals