How is BioLogos different from Darwinism or Social Darwinism?
When Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859, he produced a major shift in scientists’ understanding of biology. Darwin proposed a specific mechanism for the gradual change of species. That mechanism was called natural selection. The theory of evolution by natural selection was called Darwinism, although modern Darwinism also acknowledges the possibility of other types of evolutionary selection. To have the theory of evolution so strongly attached to Darwin’s name may seem to imply the idea of a cult that slavishly follows the work of a single scientist. That is most certainly not the case. The modern theory of evolution has contributions from many independent scientists from the last 150 years and has become the absolute core of biology. When Darwin proposed the mechanism of natural selection, he did not understand the details of how a species’ naturally selected traits could be inherited by its offspring. Fortunately, Gregor Mendel’s research in genetics was already un
