History of Evolution Part One
Brief
History of Evolutionary Theory
Where did this idea come from?
Source: The Evolution Cruncher
First, a little background:
Introduction:
Stellar evolution is based on the concept that nothing can explode
and produce all the stars and worlds. Life evolution is founded on
the twin theories of spontaneous generation and Lamarckism (the
inheritance of acquired characteristics);--yet, although they remain
the basis of biological evolution, both were debunked by scientists
over a century ago.
Science is the study of the natural world. We are thankful for the
many dedicated scientists who are hard at work, improving life for
us. But we will learn that their discoveries have provided no
worthwhile evidence supporting evolutionary theory.
Premises are important. They are the concepts by which scientific
facts are interpreted. For over a century, efforts have been made to
explain scientific discoveries by a mid-19th century theory, known
as "evolution." It has formed the foundation for many theories. Yet
none of them are founded on scientific facts! They are the concepts
by which scientific facts are interpreted.
Here are the two premises on which the various theories of evolution are based:
This is the evolutionary formula for making a universe:
Nothing + nothing = two elements + time = 92 natural elements + time = all physical laws and a completely structured universe of galaxies, systems, stars, planets, and moons orbiting in perfect balance and order.
This is the evolutionary formula for making life:
Dirt + water + time = living creatures.
Evolutionists theorize that the above two formulas can enable
everything about us to make itself--with the exception of man-made
things, such as automobiles or buildings. Complicated things, such
as wooden boxes with nails in them, require thought, intelligence,
and careful workmanship. But everything else about us in nature,
such as hummingbirds and the human eye, is declared to be the result
of accidental mishaps, random confusion, and time. You will not even
need raw materials to begin with. They make themselves too.
How did all this nonsense get started? We will begin with a brief
overview of the modern history of evolutionary theory.
But let us not forget that, though it may be nonsensical,
evolutionary theory has greatly affected--and damaged--mankind in
the 20th century. Will we continue to let this happen, now that we
are in the 21st century? The social and moral impact that
evolutionary concepts have had on the modern world has been
terrific.
Morality and ethical standards
Morality and ethical standards have been greatly reduced. Children
and youth are taught in school that they are an advanced level of
animals; there are no moral principles. Since they are just animals,
they should do whatever they want. Personal survival and success
will come only by rivalry, strife, and stepping on others.
Here is a brief overview of some of the people and events in the
history of modern evolutionary theory. But it is only a glimpse
18th and 19th Century Scientists
Prior to the middle of the 1800s, scientists were researchers who
firmly believed that all nature was made by a Master Designer. Those
pioneers who laid the foundations of modern science were
creationists. They were men of giant intellect who struggled against
great odds in carrying on their work. They were hard-working
researchers.
In contrast, the philosophers sat around, hardly stirring from their
armchairs and theorized about everything while the scientists,
ignoring them, kept at their work.
But a change came about in the 19th century, when the philosophers
tried to gain control of scientific endeavor and suppress research
and findings that would be unfavorable to their theories. Today’s
evolutionists vigorously defend the unscientific theories they
thought up over a century ago.
William Paley (1743-1805), in his 1802 classic, Natural Theology,
summarized the viewpoint of the scientists. He argued that the kind
of carefully designed structures we see in the living world point
clearly to a Designer. If we see a watch, we know that it had a
designer and maker; it would be foolish to imagine that it made
itself. This is the "argument by design." All about us is the world
of nature, and over our heads at night is a universe of stars. We
can ignore or ridicule what is there or say it all made itself, but
our scoffing does not change the reality of the situation. A leading
atheistic scientist of our time, Fred Hoyle, wrote that, although it
was not difficult to disprove Darwinism, what Paley had to say
appeared likely to be unanswerable (Fred Hoyle and Chandra
Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space, 1981, p. 96).
It is a remarkable fact that the basis of evolutionary theory was
destroyed by seven scientific research findings,--before Charles
Darwin first published the theory.
Carl Linn (Carolus Linnaeus, 1707-1778) was a scientist who
classified immense numbers of living organisms. An earnest
creationist, he clearly saw that there were no halfway species. All
plant and animal species were definite categories, separate from one
another. Variation was possible within a kind, and there were many
sub-species. But there were no crossovers from one kind to another
(R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 276).
First Law of Thermodynamics (1847). Heinrich von Helmholtz stated
the law of conservation of energy: The sum total of all matter will
always remain the same. This law refutes several aspects of
evolutionary theory. Isaac Asimov calls it "the most fundamental
generalization about the universe that scientists have ever been
able to make" (quoted in Isaac Asimov, "In the Game of Energy and
Thermodynamics You Can’t Even Break Even," Journal of Smithsonian
Institute, June 1970, p. 6).
Second Law of Thermodynamics (1850). R.J.E. Clausius stated the law
of entropy:: All systems will tend toward the most mathematically
probable state, and eventually become totally random and
disorganized (Harold Blum, Time’s Arrow and Evolution, 1968, p.
201). In other words, everything runs down, wears out, and goes to
pieces (R.R. Kindsay, "Physics: to What Extent is it Deterministic,"
American Scientist 56, 1968, p. 100). This law totally eliminates
the basic evolutionary theory that simple evolves into complex.
Einstein said the two laws were the most enduring laws he knew of
(Jeremy Rifkin, Entropy: A New World View, 1980, p. 6).
Guadeloupe Woman Found (1812). This is a well-authenticated
discovery which has been in the British Museum for over a century. A
fully human skeleton was found in the French Caribbean island of
Guadeloupe inside an immense slab of limestone, dated by modern
geologists at 28 million years old. (More examples could be cited.)
Human beings, just like those living today (but sometimes larger)
have been found in very deep levels of strata.
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was a creationist who lived and worked
near Brunn (now Brno), Czechoslovakia. He was a science and math
teacher. Unlike the theorists, Mendel was a true scientist. He bred
garden peas and studied the results of crossing various varieties.
Beginning his work in 1856, he concluded it within eight years. In
1865, he reported his research in the Journal of the Brunn Society
for the Study of Natural Science. The journal was distributed to 120
libraries in Europe, England, and America. Yet his research was
totally ignored by the scientific community until it was
rediscovered in 1900 (R.A. Fisher, "Has Mendel’s Work Been
Rediscovered?" Annals of Science, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1936). His
experiments clearly showed that one species could not transmute into
another one. A genetic barrier existed that could not be bridged.
Mendel’s work laid the basis for modern genetics, and his
discoveries effectively destroyed the basis for species evolution
(Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution, 1984, pp. 63-64).
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was another genuine scientist. In the
process of studying fermentation, he performed his famous 1861
experiment, in which he disproved the theory of spontaneous
generation. Life cannot arise from non-living materials. This
experiment was very important; for, up to that time, a majority of
scientists believed in spontaneous generation. (They thought that if
a pile of old clothes were left in a corner, it would breed mice!
The proof was that, upon later returning to the clothes, mice would
frequently be found there.) Pasteur concluded from his experiment
that only God could create living creatures. But modern evolutionary
theory continues to be based on the out-dated theory disproved by
Pasteur: spontaneous generation (life arises from non-life). Why?
Because it is the only real basis on which evolution could occur. As
Adams notes, "With spontaneous generation discredited [by Pasteur],
biologists were left with no theory of the origin of life at all"
(J. Edison Adams, Plants: An Introduction to Modern Biology, 1967,
p. 585).
August Friedrich Leopold Weismann (1834-1914) was a German biologist
who disproved Lamarck’s notion of "the inheritance of acquired
characteristics." He is primarily remembered as the scientist who
cut off the tails of 901 young white mice in 19 successive
generations, yet each new generation was born with a full-length
tail. The final generation, he reported, had tails as long as those
originally measured on the first. Weismann also carried out other
experiments that buttressed his refutation of Lamarckism. His
discoveries, along with the fact that circumcision of Jewish males
for 4,000 years had not affected the foreskin, doomed the theory
(Jean Rostand, Orion Book of Evolution, 1960, p. 64). Yet Lamarckism
continues today as the disguised basis of evolutionary biology. For
example, evolutionists still teach that giraffes kept stretching
their necks to reach higher branches, so their necks became longer!
In a later book, Darwin abandoned natural selection, as unworkable,
and returned to Lamarckism as the cause of the never-observed change
from one species to another (Randall Hedtke, The Secret of the Sixth
Edition, 1984).
Here is a brief, partial overview of what true scientists were
accomplishing in the 18th and 19th centuries. All of them were
Creationists:
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873): glacial geology, ichthyology.
Charles Babbage (1792-1871): actuarial tables, calculating machine,
foundations of computer science.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626): scientific method of research.
Robert Boyle (1627-1691): chemistry, gas dynamics.
Sir David Brewster (1781-1868): optical mineralogy, kaleidoscope.
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832): comparative anatomy, vertebrate
paleontology.
Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829): thermokinetics.
Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915): entomology of living insects.
Michael Faraday (1791-1867): electric generator, electro-magnetics,
field theory.
Sir John A. Fleming (1849-1945): electronics, thermic valve.
Joseph Henry (1797-1878): electric motor, galvanometer.
Sir William Herschel (1738-1822): galactic astronomy, double stars.
James Joule (1818-1889): reversible thermodynamics.
Lord William Kelvin (1824-1907): absolute temperature scale,
energetics, thermodynamics, transatlantic cable.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630): celestial mechanics, ephemeris tables,
physical astronomy.
Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778): classification system, systematic
biology.
Joseph Lister (1827-1912): antiseptic surgery.
Matthew Maury (1806-1873): hydrography, oceanography.
James C. Maxwell (1831-1879): electrical dynamics, statistical
thermodynamics.
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884): genetics.
Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872): telegraph.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727): calculus, dynamics, law of gravity,
reflecting telescopes.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662): hydrostatics, barometer.
Louise Pasteur (1822-1895): bacteriology, biogenesis law,
pasteurization, vaccination, and immunization.
Sir William Ramsey (1852-1916): inert gases, isotropic chemistry.
John Ray (1827-1705): natural history, classification of plants and
animals.
John Rayleigh (1842-1919): dimensional analysis, model analysis.
Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866): non-Euclidean geometry.
Sir James Simpson (1811-1870): chloroform, gynecology.
Sir George Stockes (1819-1903): fluid mechanics.
Rudolph Virchow (1821-1902): pathology.
18th and 19th Century Evolutionists
And now we will view the armchair philosophers. Hardly one of them
ever set foot in field research or entered the door of a science
laboratory, yet they founded the modern theory of evolution:
Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a do-nothing expert. In his 1734
book, Principia, he theorized that a rapidly rotating nebula formed
itself into our solar system of sun and planets. He claimed that he
obtained the idea from spirits during a séance. It is significant
that the nebular hypothesis theory originated from such a source.
Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) was a dissolute philosopher who, unable
to improve on the work of Linnaeus, spent his time criticizing him.
He theorized that species originated from one another and that a
chunk was torn out of the sun, which became our planet. As with the
other philosophers, he presented no evidence in support of his
theories.
Jean-Baptist Lamarck (1744-1829) made a name for himself by
theorizing. He accomplished little else of significance. He laid the
foundation of modern evolutionary theory, with his concept of
"inheritance of acquired characteristics," which was later given the
name Lamarckism. In 1809, he published a book, Philosophie
zoologique, in which he declared that the giraffe got its long neck
by stretching it up to reach the higher branches, and birds that
lived in water grew webbed feet. If you pull hard on your feet, you
can increase their length; and, if you decide in your mind to do so,
you can grow hair on your bald head, and your offspring will never
be bald. This is science?
Lamarck’s other erroneous contribution to evolution was the theory
of uniformitarianism. This is the conjecture that all earlier ages
on earth were exactly as they are today, calm and peaceful with no
worldwide Flood or other great catastrophes.
Robert Chambers (1802-1883) was a spiritualist who regularly
communicated with spirits. As a result of his contacts, he wrote the
first popular evolution book in all of Britain. Vestiges of Creation
(1844), was printed 15 years before Charles Darwin’s book, Origin of
the Species.
Charles Lyell (1797-1875). Like Charles Darwin, Lyell inherited
great wealth and was able to spend his time theorizing. Lyell
published his Principles of Geology in 1830-1833, and it became the
basis for the modern theory of sedimentary strata,--even though
20th-century discoveries in radiodating, radiocarbon dating, missing
strata, and overthrusts (older strata on top of more recent strata)
have nullified the theory.
In order to prove his theory, Lyell was quite willing to misstate
the facts. He learned that Niagara Falls had eroded a seven-mile [11
km] channel from Queenston, Ontario, and that it was eroding at
about 3 feet [1 m] a year. So Lyell conveniently changed that to one
foot [.3 m] a year, which meant that the falls had been flowing for
35,000 years! But Lyell had not told the truth. Three-foot erosion a
year, at its present rate of flow, would only take us back 7000 to
9000 years,--and it would be expected that, just after the Flood,
the flow would, for a time, have greatly increased the erosion rate.
Lyell was a close friend of Darwin, and urged him to write his book,
Origin of the Species.
Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913) is considered to be the man who
developed the theory which Darwin published. Wallace was deeply
involved in spiritism at the time he formulated the theory in his
Ternate Paper, which Darwin, with the help of two friends (Charles
Lyell and Joseph Hooker), pirated and published under his own name.
Darwin, a wealthy man, thus obtained the royalties which belonged to
Wallace, a poverty-ridden theorist. In 1980, Arnold C. Brackman, in
his book, A Delicate Arrangement, established that Darwin
plagiarized Wallace’s material. It was arranged that a paper by
Darwin would be read to the Royal Society, in London, while
Wallace’s was held back until later. Priorities for the ideas thus
having been taken care of, Darwin set to work to prepare his book.
In 1875, Wallace came out openly for spiritism and Marxism, another
stepchild of Darwinism. This was Wallace’s theory: Species have
changed in the past, by which one species descended from another in
a manner that we cannot prove today. That is exactly what modern
evolution teaches. Yet it has no more evidence supporting the theory
than Wallace had in 1858 when he devised the theory while in a
fever.
In February 1858, while in a delirious fever on the island of
Ternate in the Molaccas, Wallace conceived the idea, "survival of
the fittest," as being the method by which species change. But the
concept proves nothing. The fittest; which one is that? It is the
one that survived longest. Which one survives longest? The fittest.
This is reasoning in a circle. The phrase says nothing about the
evolutionary process, much less proving it.
In the first edition of his book, Darwin regarded "natural
selection" and "survival of the fittest" as different concepts. By
the sixth edition of his Origin of the Species, he thought they
meant the same thing, but that "survival of the fittest" was the
more accurate. In a still later book (Descent of Man, 1871), Darwin
ultimately abandoned "natural selection" as a hopeless mechanism and
returned to Lamarckism. Even Darwin recognized the theory was
falling to pieces. The supporting evidence just was not there.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was born into wealth and able to have a
life of ease. He took two years of medical school at Edinburgh
University, and then dropped out. It was the only scientific
training he ever received. Because he spent the time in the bars
with his friends, he barely passed his courses. Darwin had no
particular purpose in life, and his father planned to get him into a
nicely paid job as an Anglican minister. Darwin did not object.
But an influential relative got him a position as unpaid
"naturalist" on a ship planning to sail around the world, the
Beagle. The voyage lasted from December 1831 to October 1836.
It is of interest that, after engaging in spiritism, certain men in
history have been seized with a deep hatred of God and have then
been guided to devise evil teachings, that have destroyed large
numbers of people, while others have engaged in warfare which have
annihilated millions. In connection with this, we think of such
known spiritists as Sigmund Freud and Adolf Hitler. It is not
commonly known that Charles Darwin, while a naturalist aboard the
Beagle, was initiated into witchcraft in South America by nationals.
During horseback travels into the interior, he took part in their
ceremonies and, as a result, something happened to him. Upon his
return to England, although his health was strangely weakened, he
spent the rest of his life working on theories to destroy faith in
the Creator.
After leaving South America, Darwin was on the Galapagos Islands for
a few days. While there, he saw some finches, which had blown in
from South America and adapted to their environment, producing
several sub-species. He was certain that this showed cross-species
evolution (change into new species). But they were still finches.
This theory about the finches was the primary evidence of evolution
he brought back with him to England.
Darwin, never a scientist and knowing nothing about the
practicalities of genetics, then married his first cousin, which
resulted in all seven of his children having physical or mental
disorders. (One girl died after birth, another at 10. His oldest
daughter had a prolonged breakdown at 15. Three of his six sons
became semi-invalids, and his last son was born mentally retarded
and died 19 months after birth.)
His book, Origin of the Species, was first published in November
1859. The full title, On the Origin of the Species by Means of
Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the
Struggle for Life, reveals the viciousness of the underlying
concept; this concept led directly to two of the worst wars in the
history of mankind.
In his book, Darwin reasoned from theory to facts, and provided
little evidence for what he had to say. Modern evolutionists are
ashamed of the book, with its ridiculous arguments.
Darwin’s book had what some men wanted: a clear out-in-the-open,
current statement in favor of species change. So, in spite of its
laughable imperfections, they capitalized on it. Here is what you
will find in his book:
Darwin would cite authorities that he did not mention. He repeatedly
said it was "only an abstract," and "a fuller edition" would come
out later. But, although he wrote other books, try as he may he
never could find the proof for his theories. No one since has found
it either.
When he did name an authority, it was just an opinion from a letter.
Phrases indicating the hypothetical nature of his ideas were
frequent: "It might have been," "Maybe," "probably," "it is
conceivable that." A favorite of his was: "Let us take an imaginary
example."
Darwin would suggest a possibility, and later refer back to it as a
fact: "As we have already demonstrated previously." Elsewhere he
would suggest a possible series of events and then conclude by
assuming that proved the point.
He relied heavily on stories instead of facts. Confusing examples
would be given. He would use specious and devious arguments, and
spent much time suggesting possible explanations why the facts he
needed were not available.
Here is an example of his reasoning:
To explain the fossil trans-species gaps, Darwin suggested that
species must have been changing quickly in other parts of the world
where men had not yet examined the strata. Later these changed
species traveled over to the Western World, to be found in strata
there as new species. So species were changing on the other side of
the world, and that was why species in the process of change were
not found on our side! To explain the fossil trans-species gaps,
Darwin suggested that species must have been changing quickly in
other parts of the world where men had not yet examined the strata.
Later these changed species traveled over to the Western World, to
be found in strata there as new species. So species were changing on
the other side of the world, and that was why species in the process
of change were not found on our side!
With thinking like this, who needs science? But remember that
Charles Darwin never had a day of schooling in the sciences.
Here is Darwin’s explanation of how one species changes into
another:
It is a variation of Lamarck’s theory of inheritance of acquired
characteristics (Nicholas Hutton III, Evidence of Evolution, 1962,
p. 138). Calling it pangenesis, Darwin said that an organ affected
by the environment would respond by giving off particles that he
called gemmules. These particles supposedly helped determine
hereditary characteristics. The environment would affect an organ;
gemmules would drop out of the organ; and the gemmules would travel
to the reproductive organs, where they would affect the cells (W.
Stansfield, Science of Evolution, 1977, p. 38). As mentioned
earlier, scientists today are ashamed of Darwin’s ideas.
In his book, Darwin taught that man came from an ape, and that the
stronger races would, within a century or two, destroy the weaker
ones. (Modern evolutionists claim that man and ape descended from a
common ancestor.)
After taking part in the witchcraft ceremonies, not only was his
mind affected but his body also. He developed a chronic and
incapacitating illness, and went to his death under a depression he
could not shake (Random House Encyclopedia, 1977, p. 768).
He frequently commented in private letters that he recognized that
there was no evidence for his theory, and that it could destroy the
morality of the human race. "Long before the reader has arrived at
this part of my work, a crowd of difficulties will have occurred to
him. Some of them are so serious that to this day I can hardly
reflect on them without in some degree becoming staggered" (Charles
Darwin, Origin of the Species, 1860, p. 178; quoted from Harvard
Classics, 1909 ed., Vol. 11). "Often a cold shudder has run through
me, and I have asked myself whether I may have not devoted myself to
a phantasy" (Charles Darwin, Life and Letters, 1887, Vol. 2, p.
229).
Thomas Huxley (1825-1895) was the man Darwin called "my bulldog."
Darwin was so frail in health that he did not make public
appearances, but remained secluded in the mansion he inherited.
After being personally converted by Darwin (on a visit to Darwin’s
home), Huxley championed the evolutionary cause with everything he
had. In the latter part of the 19th century, while Haeckel labored
earnestly on the European continent, Huxley was Darwin’s primary
advocate in England.
The X Club was a secret society in London which worked to further
evolutionary thought and suppress scientific opposition to it. It
was powerful, for all scientific papers considered by the Royal
Society were first approved by this small group of nine members.
Chaired by Huxley, its members made contacts and powerfully affected
British scientific associations (Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution,
1984, p. 64). " ‘But what do they do?’ asked a curious journalist.
‘They run British science,’ a professor replied, ‘and on the whole,
they don’t do it badly’ " (R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution,
1990, p. 467). In the 20th century, U.S. government agencies,
working closely with the National Science Federation and kindred
organizations, have channeled funds for research to universities
willing to try to find evidence for evolution. Down to the present
day, the theorists are still trying to control the scientists.
The Oxford Debate was held in June 1860 at Oxford University, only
seven months after the publication of Darwin’s Origin of the
Species. A special meeting of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, it marked a major turning point in
England,--just as the 1925 Scopes Trial would be the turning point
in North America. Scientific facts had little to do with either
event; both were just battles between personalities. In both
instances, evolutionists won through ridicule. They dared not rely
on scientific facts to support their case, because they had none.
Samuel Wilberforce, Anglican bishop of Oxford University, was
scheduled to speak that evening in defense of creationism. Huxley
had lectured on behalf of evolution in many English cities and was
not planning to attend that night. But Chambers, a spiritualist
adviser to Huxley, was impressed to find and tell him he must
attend.
Wilberforce delivered a vigorous attack on evolution for half an
hour before a packed audience of 700 people. His presentation was
outstanding, and the audience was apparently with him. But then
Wilberforce turned and rhetorically asked Huxley a humorous
question, whether it was through his grandfather or his grandmother
that Huxley claimed descent from an ape.
Huxley was extremely sharp-witted and, at the bishop’s question, he
clasped the knee of the person sitting next to him, and said, "He is
delivered into my hands!"
Huxley arose and worked the audience up to a climax, and then
declared that he would feel no shame in having an ape as an
ancestor, but would be ashamed of a brilliant man who plunged into
scientific questions of which he knew nothing (John W. Klotz,
"Science and Religion," in Studies in Creation, 1985, pp. 45-46).
At this, the entire room went wild, some yelling one thing and
others another. On a pretext so thin, the evolutionists in England
became a power which scientists feared to oppose. We will learn that
ridicule heaped on ridicule, through the public press, accomplished
the same results for American evolutionists in Dayton, Tennessee, in
1925.
The Orgueil Meteorite (1861) was one of many hoaxes perpetrated, to
further the cause of evolution. Someone inserted various dead
microbes, and then covered it over with a surface appearing like the
meteorite. The objective was to show that life came from outer
space. But the hoax was later discovered (Scientific American,
January 1965, p. 52). A remarkable number of hoaxes have occurred
since then. Men, working desperately, tried to provide the
scientific evidence that does not exist. In the mid-1990s, a
meteorite "from Mars" with "dead organisms" on it was trumpeted in
the press. But ignored were the conclusions of competent scientists,
that both "discoveries" were highly speculative.
Sir Francis Galton (1865). Galton was Charles Darwin’s cousin, who
amplified on one of the theory’s logical conclusions. He declared
that the "science" of "eugenics" was the key to humanity’s problems:
Put the weak, infirm, and aged to sleep. Adolf Hitler, an ardent
evolutionist, used it successfully in World War II (Otto Scott,
"Playing God," in Chalcedon Report, No. 247, February 1986, p. 1).
Wallace’s Break with Darwin. Darwin’s close friend, Russell Wallace,
eventually separated from Darwin’s position--a position he had given
Darwin--when Wallace realized that the human brain was far too
advanced for evolutionary processes to have produced it (Loren C.
Eiseley, "Was Darwin Wrong about the Human Brain?" Harpers Magazine,
211:66-70, 1955).
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), along with certain other men (Friedrich
Nietzche, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, John Dewey, etc.) introduced
evolutionary modes and morality into social fields (sociology,
psychology, education, warfare, economics, etc.) with devastating
effects on the 20th century. Spencer, also a spiritist, was the one
who initially invented the term, "evolution" (R. Milner,
Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 159; cf. 424). Spencer
introduced sociology into Europe, clothing it in evolutionary terms.
From there it traveled to America. He urged that the unfit be
eliminated, so society could properly evolve (Harry E. Barnes,
Historical Sociology, 1948, p. 13). In later years, even the leading
evolutionists of the time, such as Huxley and Darwin, became tired
of the fact that Spencer could do nothing but theorize and knew so
little of real-life facts.
Archaeopteryx (1861, 1877). These consisted of several fossils from
a single limestone quarry in Germany, each of which the quarry owner
sold at a high price. One appeared to possibly be a small dinosaur
skeleton, complete with wings and feathers. European museums paid
high prices for them.
Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), a teacher at the University of Jena in
Germany, was the most zealous advocate of Darwinism on the continent
in the 19th century. He drew a number of fraudulent charts (first
published in 1868) which purported to show that human embryos were
almost identical to those of other animals. Reputable scientists
repudiated them within a few years, for embryologists recognized the
deceit. Darwin and Haeckel had a strong influence on the rise of
world communism (Daniel Gasman, Scientific Origins of National
Socialism: Social Darwinism in Ernst Haeckel and the German Monist
League, 1971, p. xvi).
Marsh’s Horse Series (1870s). Othniel C. Marsh claimed to have found
30 different kinds of horse fossils in Wyoming and Nebraska. He
reconstructed and arranged them in a small-to-large evolutionary
series, which was never in a straight line (Encyclopedia Britannica,
1976 ed., Vol. 7, p. 13). Although displayed in museums for a time,
the great majority of scientists later repudiated this "horse
series" (Charles Deperet, Transformations of the Animal World, p.
105; G.A. Kerkut, Implications of Evolution, 1960, p. 149).
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Nietzsche was a remarkable example
of a man who fully adopted Darwinist principles. He wrote books
declaring that the way to evolve was to have wars and kill the
weaker races, in order to produce a "super race" (T. Walter Wallbank
and Alastair M. Taylor, Civilization Past and Present, Vol. 2, 1949
ed., p. 274). Darwin, in Origin of the Species, also said that this
needed to happen. The writings of both men were read by German
militarists and led to World War I. Hitler valued both Darwin’s and
Nietzche’s books. When Hitler killed 6 million Jews, he was only
doing what Darwin taught.
It is of interest, that a year before he defended John Scopes’ right
to teach Darwinism at the Dayton "Monkey Trial," Clarence Darrow
declared in court that the murderous thinking of two young men was
caused by their having learned Nietzsche’s vicious Darwinism in the
public schools (W. Brigan, ed., Classified Speeches).
Asa Gray was the first leading theistic evolutionary advocate in
America, at the time when Darwin was writing his books. Gray, a
Presbyterian, worked closely with Charles W. Eliot, president of
Harvard, in promoting evolution as a "Christian teaching," yet
teaching long ages and the book of Genesis as a fable.
The Challenger was a British ship dispatched to find evidence, on
the ocean bottom, of evolutionary change. During its 1872-1876
voyage, it carried on seafloor dredging, but found no fossils
developing on the bottom of the ocean. By this time, it was obvious
to evolutionists that no fossils were developing on either land or
sea, yet they kept quiet about the matter. Over the years, theories,
hoaxes, false claims, and ridicule favoring evolution were spread
abroad; but facts refuting it, when found, were kept hidden.
Karl Marx (1818-1883) is closely linked with Darwinism. That which
Darwin did to biology, Marx with the help of others did to society.
All the worst political philosophies of the 20th century emerged
from the dark cave of Darwinism. Marx was thrilled when he read
Origin of the Species and he immediately wrote Darwin and asked to
dedicate his own major work, Das Kapital, to him. Darwin, in his
reply, thanked him but said it would be best not to do so.
In 1866, Marx wrote to Frederick Engels, that Origin of the Species
contained the basis in natural history for their political and
economic system for an atheist world. Engels, the co-founder of
world communism with Marx and Lenin, wrote to Karl Marx in 1859:
"Darwin, whom I am just now reading, is splendid" (C. Zirkle,
Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene, 1959, p. 85). In
1861, Marx wrote to Engels: "Darwin’s book is very important and
serves me as a basis in natural selection for the class struggle in
history" (op. cit., p. 86). At Marx’s funeral, Engles said that, as
Darwin had discovered the law of organic evolution in natural
history, so Marx had discovered the law of evolution in human
history (Otto Ruhle, Karl Marx, 1948, p. 366).
As Darwin emphasized competitive survival as the key to advancement,
so communism focused on the value of labor rather than the laborer.
Like Darwin, Marx thought he had discovered the law of development.
He saw history in stages, as the Darwinists saw geological strata
and successive forms of life.
William Grant Sumner (1840-1910) applied evolutionary principles to
political economics at Yale University. He taught many of America’s
future business and industrial leaders that strong business should
succeed and the weak perish, and that to help the unfit was to
injure the fit and accomplish nothing for society (R. Milner,
Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, pp. 59, 446, 72). Millionaires
were, in his thinking, the "fittest." Modern laissez-faire
capitalism was the result (Gilman M. Ostrander, The Evolutionary
Outlook: 1875-1900, 1971, p. 5).
William James (1842-1910) was another evolutionist who influenced
American thinking. His view of psychology placed the study of human
behavior on an animalistic evolutionary basis.
Tidal Hypothesis Theory (1890). George Darwin, son of Charles
Darwin, wanted to come up with something original, so he invented
the theory that four million years ago the moon was pressed nearly
against the earth, which revolved every five hours.--Then one day, a
heavy tide occurred in the oceans, which lifted it out to its
present location! Later proponents of George’s theory decided that
the Pacific Basin is the hole the moon left behind, when the large
ocean waves pushed it out into space.