HISTORY OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY: 1

Rather consistently, it was the men who lacked scientific ability who invented basic evolutionary theory. Today we are saddled with the armchair speculations they dreamed up. Here, in Part 1, is this history prior to the 20th century. This is science vs. evolution—a Creation-Evolution Encyclopedia, brought to you by Creation Science Facts.

Page numbers without book references refer to the book, HISTORY OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY, from which these facts are summarized. An asterisk ( * ) by a name indicates that person is not known to be a creationist. Of over 4,000 quotations in the set of books this Encyclopedia is based on, only 164 statements are by creationists.

The evolutionists were puzzled how to succeed in inventing a logical theory that everything in the universe made itself—without getting laughed at. But they kept at it, until they won enough people to their side. This is an article you will want to read, for it is very revealing. It is the story of how dreamers took over Western science.

BEFORE THE 20TH CENTURY

In earlier centuries, men sought to understand our world and the universe. These were thoughtful men of brilliant intellect. In most instances, they believed that God made everything. The facts of nature pointed directly to that great truth.

Men such as Agassiz, Babbage, Boyle, Faraday, Fleming, Herschel, Joule, Kelvin, Kepler, Linnaeus, Lister, Maxwell, Mendel, Morse, Newton, and Pasteur were the leading scientists of their time. They laid the foundations of modern science.

Back then, there were no committees which said you cannot be a science teacher or a scientist, because you are not an evolutionist. We did not then have a tightly controlled scientific community, as we do today. (More on this in Evolution and Society.)—pp. 13-14.

William Paley (1743-1805) was an outstanding thinker of the 18th century who, in his classic book, Natural Theology, detailed many reasons why only God could have made the universe and everything in our world.

That which he taught was called "the argument by design"; that is, the very structure of the plants and animals, their marvelous adaptation to life, and the intelligent planning which produced them—clearly pointed to God as the Creator and Lifegiver.

Repeatedly, the brilliant men who accomplished worthwhile scientific achievements were creationists, and the men who ridiculed the idea tended to be craven, dissolute, and unable or unwilling to do in-depth research.—pp. 14-15.

*Georges Louis Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) was such a man. Unable to accomplish anything useful, he occupied himself with ridiculing belief in God, speculating that species originated from one another, and that the earth was torn out of the sun.—p. 15.

Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), in contrast, spent his lifetime in study and classification of plants and animals. Large numbers were named by him. Gathering together a massive amount of information, he clearly saw that it all pointed to separate, distinct species—which had to have been created by God.—p. 14.

*Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) was a man of many wives and mistresses, and was poor most of his life. Science remembers him for his theory of "inheritance of acquired characteristics." Also known as "Lamarckism," this is the idea that if you lose a leg, your son will not have one either.—p. 16.

Baron Cuvier (1769-1832) was a French Protestant, a brilliant naturalist, and a researcher. Director of a leading Paris museum, he became the world's leading expert at identifying fossils from a single bone. As a result of years of analysis, he concluded that species did not change into one another.—p. 16.

*Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) wanted to become famous, yet had never accomplished anything worthwhile. So he wrote a book, Zoonomia, in which he favored Lamarckism and evolutionism. Liberals liked his book. He would later gain greater fame because he was the grandfather of *Charles Darwin.—p. 16.

*James Hutton (1726-1797) was a Scotch geologist who decided that the bent and twisted layers of strata were caused, not by a cataclysmic Flood, but by millions of years of peaceful deposition of earth as the leaves fell and turned to sod. He called his theory, "uniformitarianism"; which has as its motto: "The present is the key to the past."—p. 16.

*Robert Chambers (1802-1883), a Scot, wrote one of the first popular evolution books, Vestiges of Natural History. His theory was that species originated from one another.—p. 16.

Among those who were strongly influenced by Chamber's book were three spiritualists: *Immanuel Swedenborg who, in 1734, first developed the "nebular hypothesis," that all stars and planets swirled out of gas; *Alfred Wallace, another spiritualist; and *Charles Darwin, the author of Origin of the Species. Spiritualists hold communication with devils.—p. 16.

(For more on Swedenborg, see Book 3: Origin of the Solar System from the Order Sheet.)

*Charles Lyell (1797-1875) was—with *Charles Darwin—the most influential evolutionist of the 19th century. Neither had any scientific training, but their theories appealed to many people.

Lyell speculated about the past; and, when the facts disagreed with this, he excused it by saying that they were due to "imperfections in the geologic record." He published a three-volume work, Principles of Geology.—pp. 16-18.

*Alfred Wallace (1823-1913) was the spiritualist mentioned earlier. While in a fever in southeast Asia, the phrase, "survival of the fittest," came to mind as the cause of evolution. He wrote back to England, saying that the idea came as an inspiration to him, and that it must be the cause of evolution. But survival is not evolution! If you survive 70 years till you die, did you evolve? When Wallace wrote home about the idea, it was stolen by *Charles Darwin, who published it as his own. In 1875, Wallace openly declared himself for spiritualism and Marxism.—pp. 18-19.

*Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was sent off to college by his father, and took a religion course. But he cared little about the subject; and, through wealthy connections, was assigned as "naturalist" on the ship, Beagle, which traveled around the world. Darwin visited many places, but it was at the Galapagos Islands that he found the "evidence" for his theory of evolution. On that island he found a dozen and a half finches. Although they were all clearly of the same species, some had longer bills than others. This convinced him that evolution was possible. But, as far as those finches were concerned, it had not occurred.

Arriving back home, Darwin married and settled in a country home, with a lifetime hereditary income. He raised pigeons and tried to make new species, but without success. He measured different things with tools you would find in a nearby store, wrote letters, and thought and thought. He told people that, according to his theory, within a century the whites would crush out all the inferior races. He was excited when he heard that a "cat had its tail cut off, at Shrewsbury, and its kittens had all short tails." This dreamy collection of hopes he wanted to put into a book; but, for years, he was too indolent to do it. Then he heard a rival might publish something similar, so he determined to put his ideas in print first.

Above all, Darwin wanted to become famous like his grandfather, *Erasmus Darwin, who had written a sceptical book.

The result was Origin of the Species, a volume so ridiculous that evolutionists today prefer that it not be easily available. Darwin never devised a way that the species could originate. The best he could do was wish it might have happened.

Darwin was not a professional scientist, but an amateur—and one doing poorer quality work than most in his time. He never had a day of schooling in the sciences.

It is known that Darwin was initiated into witchcraft by the South American nationals. He took part in their ceremonies and, as a result, something happened to him. When he returned to England, he lived only to deny the facts, the natural world, which points to the Creator.—pp. 19-23.

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was a creationist who lived and worked in eastern Europe. He was a science and math teacher.

After reading about the confusing speculations of Darwin and his associates, it is encouraging to read about a man who did actual scientific research. From his studies with garden peas, he developed several concepts of genetics.

He reported on his findings in 1865, but his discoveries were totally ignored. The novelties of Darwin's ideas were the talk of the public press. But, in 1900, scientists found Mendel's writings, and his experiments were recognized as the foundation of modern genetics.

His discoveries effectively destroyed the basis for species evolution, for the truths he formulated reveal that plants and animals only produce young in accordance with traits inherited from parents in the same species.—pp. 23-24.

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was a research chemist who made major contributions in chemistry, medicine, and industry. He was also a creationist. At a time when evolution was gaining control of the scientific community, Pasteur fought it vigorously, declaring that God made everything.—p. 24.

The Orgueil Meteorite. In a study of the history of evolution, we repeatedly encounter hoaxes, dreamy ideas, frauds, or coercion. An example was a meteorite, in southern France, which was doctored to give the impression that it had fallen from the skies with organic material in it. Eventually the hoax was discovered.—p. 24.

*Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), along with men like *Friedrich Nietzsche, *Karl Marx, *Sigmund Freud, and *John Dewey, introduced evolutionary teachings and morals into social fields (sociology, psychology, education, economics, etc.) See Evolution and Society for more on this.

Spencer, another spiritualist, was the one who was inspired to coin the term "evolution." He was the one who gave *Wallace's phrase, "survival of the fittest," to *Darwin. He never did serious research, but only discussed theories.—p. 24.

*Thomas Huxley (1825-1895) was the man that Darwin called his "bulldog." They were a team: *Darwin, more frail in health, dreamed up the theories; Huxley, robust and obnoxious, urged them everywhere.—p. 24.

*Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was an evolutionist who had obtained scientific degrees, but he promoted evolution through fraudulent charts and deceitful claims. (For additional information on him, see Recapitulation.)

Along with several other evolutionists, he championed killing off "inferior races" of people. (See Evolution and Society for more information on this.) *Adolf Hitler, later, was only carrying out ideas he had read in evolutionists' books. Hitler said that *Darwin and the others had greatly affected his thinking.—pp. 24-25.

*Asa Gray (1810-1888) was the leading evolutionist in America during Darwin's time. As botany teacher at Harvard, he spent his time lecturing and writing. He was the first to introduce evolution into American mainline Protestantism.—p. 25.

The X Club. Scientific organizations today regularly oversee research and dissemination of information—to make sure nothing opposing evolutionary theory is considered. The X Club, in London, was the parent organization of this trend. It met secretly and worked to advance evolutionary thought and suppress scientific opposition to it throughout England. *Huxley, who was no scientist, was in charge of this clandestine operation.—p. 25.

The Oxford Debate. In June 1860, only seven months after the publication of Darwin's Origin of the Species, a major debate was held in London. Evolutionists and creationists argued vigorously. Although no one apparently won at the time, yet it marked a major turning point in England—just as the Scopes Trial later did in America. At both events, ridicule was used by the evolutionists to gain ground. From that time onward, English science tended to be under the control of the evolutionists.—pp. 25-26.

*Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) was the leading liberal preacher in America in the 1870s. He urged evolutionary teachings widely, until it was discovered that he had been caught in adulterous relations. This resulted in a court battle by the husband of the woman he had wronged.—p. 26.

The ship, Challenger. In 1872 to 1876, this ship was sent by the British government to find evidence on the ocean floor of evolution. Since there are millions of fossils in the sedimentary strata, there ought to be an abundance of fossils at the bottom of the sea.

But not one was found. This is because the fossils were caused by rapid burial and heavy compaction during the Flood. If the strata and fossils had been caused by long ages of sedimentation, vast numbers of fossils should be at the bottom of the ocean.

As you might expect, the truth of this failure was kept from the public. It was determined that none of the facts negative to evolution were to be told.—p. 26.

The Monera. This was another deception. In 1866, *Haeckel predicted that shapeless blobs would be found in the ocean, which had no nuclei, but instead were only reproduced by fission. Two years later the Challenger found such blobs, and they were named Bathybius haeckelli. It is very possible that such blobs had already been found in shallow bays before Haeckel uttered his "prediction."

News of the find was published everywhere. Evolution was true! Later it was learned that the alcohol, used to preserve the jarred samples, had coagulated with the lime in the specimens, producing a type of gypsum that looked like a non-nuclear amoeba. Reports of this disclosure only appeared in a couple obscure scientific journals.—pp. 26-27.

*August Weismann (1834-1914). This German biologist cut off 19 generations of rats' tails, and proved that Lamarck's notion of "inheritance of acquired characteristics" was false. This was another setback for evolution.—p. 27.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

To the NEXT PAGE for Part 2 of this three-part article. It extends the history from 1900 to 1950.