3. In the American South Darwinism was presented as immoral
In the American South, Christian evangelicals rejected Darwinism out of hand, labeling it as an immoral refutation of Creation as described in Genesis. The arguments were based on literal interpretation of the Bible, which was often cited as supportive of slavery. Bible literalists were also concerned that refutation of any biblical stories, as natural selection did of the creation story, would render the rest of the Bible as invalid as a basis for law. The rejection of theories based on the fossil records which had emerged by mid-19th century was limited to a relative few; most clerics and lay scientists agreed that the six days referred to in the creation story were not necessarily 24-hour periods.
Darwinism, as it was called, was the basis of discussion over slavery, the emancipation of slaves, civil rights, the rights of the native American tribes, women’s suffrage, and other social issues in the United States from the time of Gray’s release of the Englishman’s work in America. The debate was almost entirely on religious issues, based on interpretation of the Bible. The scientific community accepted Darwin’s work and expanded on it. So did America’s Catholic community for the most part, at least as regarding evolution, though the process of natural selection proposed by Darwin was largely ignored.