*Walter S. Sutton and *T. Boveri (1902) independently discovered chromosomes and the linkage of genetic characters. This was only two years after Mendel’s research was rediscovered. Scientists were continually learning new facts about the fixity of the species.

*Thomas Hunt Morgan (1886-1945) was an American biologist who developed the theory of the gene. He found that the genetic determinants were present in a definite linear order in the chromosomes and could be somewhat “mapped.” He was the first to work intensively with the fruit fly, Drosophila (*Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution, 1984, p. 70). But research with fruit flies, and other creatures, has proved a total failure in showing mutations to be a mechanism for cross-species change (*Richard B. Goldschmidt, “Evolution, as Viewed by One Geneticist,” American Scientist, January 1952, p. 94).*H.J. Muller (1890-1967). Upon learning of the 1927 discovery that X-rays, gamma rays, and various chemicals could induce an extremely rapid increase of mutations in the chromosomes of test animals and plants, Muller pioneered in using X-rays to greatly increase the mutation rate in fruit flies. But all he and the other researchers found was that mutations were always harmful (*H.J. Muller, Time, November 11, 1946, p. 38; *E.J. Gardner, Principles of Genetics, 1964, p. 192; *Theodosius Dobzhansky, Genetics and the Origin of the Species, 1951, p. 73).

*Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was deeply indebted to the evolutionary training he received in Germany as a young man. He fully accepted it, as well as *Haeckel’s recapitulation theory. Freud began his Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1916) with Haeckel’s premise: “Each individual somehow recapitulates in an abbreviated form the entire development of the human race” (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 177).

Freud’s “Oedipus complex” was based on a theory of “primal horde” he developed about a “mental complex” that caveman families had long ago. His theories of anxiety complexes, and “oral” and “anal” stages, etc., were based on his belief that our ancestors were savage.

*H.G. Wells (1866-1946), the science fiction pioneer, based his imaginative writings on evolutionary teachings. He had received a science training under Professor *Thomas H. Huxley, *Darwin’s chief defender.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 *Hugo deVries (1848-1935) was a Dutch botanist and one of the three men who, in 1900, rediscovered Mendel’s paper on the law of heredity. One day while working with primroses, deVries thought he had discovered a new species. This made headlines. He actually had found a new variety (sub-species) of the primrose, but deVries conjectured that perhaps his “new species” had suddenly sprung into existence as a “mutation.” He theorized that new species “saltated” (leaped), that is, continually spring into existence. His idea is called the saltation theory.

This was a new idea; and, during the first half of the 20th century, many evolutionist biologists, finding absolutely no evidence supporting “natural selection,” switched from natural selection (“Darwinism”) to mutations (“neo-Darwinism”) as the mechanism by which the theorized cross-species changes occurred.

Later in this book, we will discover that mutations cannot produce evolution either, for they are always harmful. In addition, decades of experimentation have revealed they never produce new species.

In order to prove the mutation theory, deVries and other researchers immediately began experimentation on fruit flies; and it has continued ever since—but totally without success in producing new species.

In 1914 *Edward Jeffries discovered that deVries’ primrose was just a new variety, not a new species.

Decades later, it was discovered that most plant varieties are produced by variations in gene factors, rarely by mutations. Those caused by gene variations may be strong (although not as strong as the average original), but those varieties produced by mutations are always weak and have a poor survival rate. See chapter 10, Mutations, for much, much more on the mutation problem.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 Bumpus’ Sparrows (1898). Herman Bumpus was a zoologist at Brown University. During the winter of 1898, by accident he carried out one of the only field experiments in natural selection. One cold morning, finding 136 stunned house sparrows on the ground, he tried to nurse them back to health. Of the total, 72 revived and 64 died. He weighed and carefully measured all of them, and found that those closest to the average survived best. This frequently quoted research study is another evidence that the animal or plant closest to the original species is the most hardy. Sub-species variations will not be as hardy, and evolution entirely across species (if the DNA code would permit it) would therefore be too weakened to survive. (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 61).

In 1900, three scientists independently discovered Gregor Mendel’s astounding research findings about heredity. In the years since then, genetic research has repeatedly confirmed that there are only changes within species—never cross-species changes (which would be true evolution). This is true of plants, animals, and even microbes.

Source: Evolution Handbook

*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.(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 those large ocean waves pushed it out into space.

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 those large ocean waves pushed it out into space.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 *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). 

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.

*Asa Gray was the first leading theistic evolutionist advocate in America, at the time when Darwin was writing his books.

Source: Evolution Handbook

*Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911). 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).

*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.

*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. (See chapter 16, Vestiges and Recapitulation on our website for the charts.) *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). Source: Evolution Handbook

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. (As we will learn below, in 1985 Archaeopteryx was shown to be a fake.)

 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.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 *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 had to be 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.