Etheridge and Fleischmann are Famous
Contemporary Biologists Opposed to Evolution?

Today there are literally thousands of highly reputable scientists representing every scientific discipline who are Biblical creationists….

Many of today’s most distinguished scientists completely dismiss the concept of organic evolution in favor of Biblical creationism…. [Deleted reference to a industrial non-biologist.]

[Deleted two dead (and dead when he wrote the book) non-biologists including a reference to a “Nobel Peace Prize in science” that does not exist or for that matter make sense.]

Dr. Etheridge, world-famous paleontologist of the British Museum, has remarked:

Dr. Albert Fleischmann, of the University of Erlangen,

Many other highly distinguished scientists of our day could be quoted who completely reject the evolutionary philosophy….

[Bold print is mine emphasis.]

The widely touted “Dr. Etheridge, of the British Museum,” who always appeared in creationist literature without a given name, was quoted by Townsend as saying, “In all this great museum there is not a particle of evidence transmutation of species. Nine-tenths of the talk of evolution is sheer nonsense, not founded on observation and wholly unsupported by fact. This museum is full of proofs of the utter falsity of their views.” The content of Etheridge’s statement varied from work to work, and its source remained unidentified, except for Alexander Patterson’s comment that Etheridge was answering a question put to him by a Dr. George E. Post. When curious parties in the 1920s inquired about the identity of Etheridge, the director of the British Museum surmised that the man in question was “Robert Etheridge, Junr., who was Assistant Keeper of Geology in this Museum from 1881 to 1891,” at which time he left for Australia, where he died in 1920. The director hastened to add that “Mr. Etheridge’s opinion on this subject should not be considered as in any way representing scientific opinion in this Museum.”

This one lone biologist identified by Poteat was Albert Fleischmann (1862-1942), a reputable but relatively obscure German zoologist who taught for decades at the University of Erlangen in Bavaria. In 1901 he published a scientific critique of organic evolution, Die Descendenz-theorie, in which he rejected not only Darwinism but all theories of common organic descent. This placed him in a unique position among biologists. As Kellogg noted in 1907, Fleischmann seemed to be “the only biologist of recognised position … who publicly declared a disbelief in the theory of descent.” The German creationist apparently remained of the same mind for the rest of his life. In 1933, the year of his retirement from Erlangen, he presented a paper to the Victoria Institute in London in which he dismissed the notion of a “genelogical tree” as a “fascinating dream.” “No one can demonstrate that the limits of species have ever been passed,” he asserted. “These are the Rubicons which evolutionists cannot cross.” In his declining years Fleischmann informed English acquaintances that he was writing a book “that will wipe evolution off the slate,” but the work never appeared.