Abstract
In histories of twentieth-century Darwinism few developments loom larger than the turn-of-the-century rediscovery of Gregor Mendel’s genetic research and the later application of Mendelian principles in constructing so-called Neo-Darwinism. Virtually unknown is the equally enthusiastic embrace of Mendel by antievolutionists, who as early as 1917 adopted the Austrian monk as their most celebrated scientific hero, a status he continues to hold down to the present day.
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Notes
Three decades ago Bowler (1983) drew attention to the fact that it took biologists decades to see that Mendelian genetics actually complemented Darwinism; in the meantime they viewed Mendelism “as yet another alternative to Darwinism” (pp. 5, 16). However, Bowler erred in not qualifying his conclusion that “distrust of Darwinian materialism led the critics toward Lamarckism, not creationism” (p. 226). As we shall see, for some critics it did indeed lead to creationism (see also Bowler 1989, pp. 116–119).
On Price’s life and work, see Numbers (Numbers 2006, pp. 88–160).
Curiously, Morgan and his collaborators had said nothing about Darwin, evolution, or natural selection in The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity, published the year before (Morgan et al. 1915).
In his earlier Mendel's Principles of Heredity Bateson had said little about the implications of Mendelism for Darwinism (Bateson 1909, p. 284).
In the years between Price (1918) and 1931 the Seventh-day Adventist weekly Signs of the Times published an average of one article a year, often by Price, invoking Mendel as the destroyer of Darwinism.
For an earlier Catholic opinion, see Windle (1911).
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Numbers, R.L. Gregor Mendel: Creationist Hero. Sci & Educ 24, 115–123 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-013-9631-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-013-9631-4