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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Debora, post: 11254361, member: 1476&quot;]Your fellow may have been on the other side of the debate.&nbsp; Forgive the AI again:</p><p><br /></p><p>In the 1880s United States, anti-evolutionary sentiment was present in public discourse, often expressed through theistic perspectives that sought to reconcile Christian faith with scientific understanding or outright rejected &quot;Darwinism&quot; (specifically natural selection as a purely naturalistic process)</p><p>. This era predated the highly publicized anti-evolution campaigns of the 1920s.</p><p>Key aspects of anti-evolutionary thought and lectures in the U.S. during the 1880s include:</p><ul> <li>Theistic framing: The core of much of the opposition was theological, arguing that a purely naturalistic explanation of life&#039;s origins removed God from the process of creation. Critics like the prominent Presbyterian theologian Charles Hodge of Princeton Seminary argued that &quot;Darwinism,&quot; as a natural explanation, was tantamount to atheism, while still allowing for the possibility that God could have used an evolutionary process if divinely directed (theistic evolution).</li> <li>Scientific challenges: Many opponents, often educated individuals including some scientists, raised scientific objections to Darwin&#039;s theory of natural selection itself. Common arguments included that natural selection could only eliminate traits, not create them, and that the geological timescale necessary for gradual change was too long.</li> <li>Prominent figures and lectures:<ul> <li>Louis Agassiz (who died in 1873, but whose influence continued) was a major opponent of evolution, advocating for a theory of divine, successive creations (catastrophism).</li> <li>B.B. Warfield, also of Princeton, while open to the idea of evolution as God&#039;s method of creation, was skeptical of the scientific proof for it in the early 1880s.</li> <li>Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer of natural selection, visited the U.S. for a lecture tour in 1886-1887. His lectures were generally welcomed, but he publicly expressed his belief that natural selection could not explain higher human faculties (moral, artistic), suggesting a non-materialistic, possibly spiritual, cause for them.</li> <li>Henry Ward Beecher, a popular Congregationalist preacher, gave lectures, later published as <i>Evolution and Religion</i> (1883), which incorporated a form of theistic evolution into his sermons. This indicates the debate often centered on whether evolution could be reconciled with faith, rather than outright rejection of the concept.</li> </ul></li> <li>Shift in focus: Around 1875, as it became clear that the majority of naturalists were embracing evolution, some Protestant religious contributors began rejecting Darwin&#039;s theory more strongly, specifically due to concerns about scriptural veracity.</li> <li>Context: The debate in the U.S. during this period was primarily among academics, theologians, and the educated public, with a focus on whether the theory was compatible with a theistic worldview. The mass-market, public-focused anti-evolutionary crusades (such as those led by William Jennings Bryan and T.T. Martin) would not gain prominence until the 1920s.</li> </ul><p>Debora[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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