Quakers

===Theory of evolution===
{{Main|Quakers in science}}
The [[theory of evolution]] as described in [[Charles Darwin|Charles Darwin's]] ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'' (1859) was opposed by many Quakers in the 19th century,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Britain Yearly Meeting |title=Quakers and Science |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/quakers-and-science |access-date=17 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113071213/http://www.quaker.org.uk/quakers-and-science |archive-date=13 January 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> particularly by older evangelical Quakers who dominated the Religious Society of Friends in Great Britain. These older Quakers were suspicious of Darwin's theory and believed that [[natural selection]] could not explain life on its own.<ref name="Quakers & Evolution">{{Cite book |last=Cantor |first=Geoffrey |title=Quakers, Jews, and science religious responses to modernity and the sciences in Britain, 1650–1900 |year=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780199276684 |url=http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0199276684.001.0001/acprof-9780199276684-chapter-7 |chapter=Quaker Responses to Evolution|doi=10.1093/0199276684.001.0001 }}</ref> The influential Quaker scientist [[Edward Newman (entomologist)|Edward Newman]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Britain Yearly Meeting |title=Edward Newman (1801–1876) |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/edward-newman-1801-1876 |access-date=17 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130207081241/http://www.quaker.org.uk/edward-newman-1801-1876 |archive-date=7 February 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> said that the theory was "not compatible with our notions of creation as delivered from the hands of a Creator".

However, some young Friends such as [[John Wilhelm Rowntree]] and [[Edward Grubb (Quaker)|Edward Grubb]] supported Darwin's theories, using the doctrine of progressive revelation.<ref name="Quakers & Evolution"/> In the United States, Joseph Moore taught the theory of evolution at the Quaker [[Earlham College]] as early as 1861.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cooper |first=William |title=Joseph Moore: Quaker Evolutionist |journal=Indiana Magazine of History |date=June 1976 |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=123–137 |jstor=27790107}}</ref> This made him one of the first teachers to do so in the Midwest.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.earlham.edu/about/president/gallery/moore|title=Presidential Gallery: Joseph Moore|access-date=17 November 2012|archive-date=14 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120914170712/http://www.earlham.edu/about/president/gallery/moore|url-status=dead}}</ref> Acceptance of the theory of evolution became more widespread in Yearly Meetings who moved toward liberal Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries.<ref>{{Cite book |editor1-last=Dandelion |editor1-first=Pink |editor2-last=Collins |editor2-first=Peter |date=March 26, 2009 |title=The Quaker Condition: The Sociology of a Liberal Religion |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |pages=2–3 |isbn=978-1847185655}}</ref> However, [[creationism]] predominates within evangelical Friends Churches, particularly in East Africa and parts of the United States.