DARWINISM IN AMERICA This research paper discusse

Darwinism, namely, Darwin's scientific discoveries and opinions concerning the evolution of living or organic species, including humans, and the chief natural mechanism which he said governed that evolution, natural selection, challenged traditionally held Western scientific, philosophical and theological worldviews of the origin of life and the nature of man. As such, it received a mixed reaction in the United States initially and subsequently. Modern historiography suggests that the American reception accorded to Darwinism during the late 19th century represented a much more complex reality than merely a confrontation between modern scientific truth and old time religion. In fact, some portions of Darwinism appealed more than did others to mainstream American values and attitudes, even within the American scientific and intellectual community. Darwinism was also adapted by non-scientists to bolster political, social and economic assumptions and programs the significance of which modern historiography tends to discount; however, some facets of Social Darwinism mirrored important elements of the American experience and 19th century mindset.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, scientific acceptance of Darwinism declined,

sh and European notions of linear and rational progress. Various mediational theologists or theistic evolutionists sought to reconcile Darwinism and Christianity. On the scientific side, Bowler said that "Huxley is now seen as a pseudo-Darwinist who had little real sympathy for natural selection . . . [and] ensured that evolutionists who used Darwin as a figurehead were able to take over the British scientific community" (68). Ruse said most English scientists accepted evolution but they "argued that natural selection could not be the only or even the main cause of evolutionary change" (206). Lay philosophers such as the novelist Samuel Butler substituted an inner life force for natural selection. He said in 1879 "God, in effect, has given living things the power to design themselves" (Bowler 97). English fundamental or evangelical Christians early on lost the battle over Darwinism in England. American reactions to Darwinism were much more varied and tended to contain an even higher religious and other non-scientific content than in England. One pro-Darwinian strain was represented by Gray, who defended Darwin's methodology against attacks in England and America that it relied too much on unproven hypotheses and theories and insu