was a prominent geneticist
and evolutionary biologist, and a central figure in the field of evolutionary biology for his work in shaping the unifying modern evolutionary synthesis
. Dobzhansky was born in Ukraine
(then part of Imperial Russia) and emigrated to the United States
as a young man in 1927.
He published a major work of the modern evolutionary synthesis
, the synthesis of evolutionary biology with genetics
, in 1937.
He was awarded the National Medal of Science
in 1964, and the Franklin Medal
in 1973.
Dobzhansky was born on January 24, 1900 in Nemyriv
, Ukraine
(then in the Russian Empire
).
The evolution of life, and the evolutionary origin of mankind, are scientifically established as firmly and completely as any historical event not witnessed by human observers. Any concession to anti-evolutionists, suggesting that there are scientific reasons to doubt the facticity of evolution, would be propagating a plain untruth.
Seen in the light of evolution, biology is, perhaps, intellectually the most satisfying and inspiring science. Without that light it becomes a pile of sundry facts -- some of them interesting or curious but making no meaningful picture as a whole.
Does the evolutionary doctrine clash with religious faith? It does not. It is a blunder to mistake the Holy Scriptures for elementary textbooks of astronomy, geology, biology, and anthropology. Only if symbols are construed to mean what they are not intended to mean can there arise imaginary, insoluble conflicts. As pointed out above, the blunder leads to blasphemy: the Creator is accused of systematic deceitfulness.