Lewis Ezra Hicks (March 10, 1839 – November 17, 1921) was an American geologist, zoologist and college administrator.

Career

Hicks was born in

Kalida, Ohio Kalida is a village in Putnam County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,542 at the 2010 census. History Founded in 1834, Kalida was the first county seat of Putnam County. Kalida is a name derived from Greek meaning "beautiful". A post ...

, to Ezra and Julia (Lincoln) Hicks. During the American Civil War he was Lieutenant Colonel in the

69th Ohio Infantry The 69th Ohio Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Service The 69th Ohio Infantry Regiment was organized at Hamilton and Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio beginning in November 1861. It mustered ...

. He was educated at Denison University and graduated with an

A. B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in 1868. He attended Harvard University where he pursued work in geology and zoology. He was a student of

Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...

. He was Professor of Natural Science at Denison University (1870-1884) and professor of geology at University of Nebraska (1884-1891). He was a fellow and member of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

and a founding member of the Geological Society of America. He was an editor for the journal ''

American Geologist American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

''. In 1894, Hicks was appointed a missionary for the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society.Anonymous. (1922)
''Lewis Ezra Hicks''
Annual of the Northern Baptist Convention. The American Baptist Publication Society. p. 555 Similar to

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...

, he believed that

Darwin's theory of evolution Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that ...

and theism were compatible.Weber, Bruce H. (2010). "Lawrence Henderson's Natural Teleology". In

Ruth M. Lynden-Bell Ruth Marion Lynden-Bell, FRS (born 7 December 1937) is a British chemist, emeritus professor of Queen's University Belfast and the University of Cambridge, and acting President of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge from 2011 to 2013. Education R ...

, Simon Conway Morris, John D. Barrow, John L. Finney, Charles Harper. ''Water and Life: The Unique Properties of H2O''. Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 334-335. From 1905 to 1911 he was president of Rangoon Baptist College in Burma. He died in Georgia, November 17, 1921.

Critique of design arguments

Hicks wrote a criticism of intelligent design arguments in 1883. Professor of Science Bruce H. Weber has noted that Hicks "warned of the ambiguity of conflating design seen as created contrivances with intent or purpose resulting from the action of natural law. He saw defenders of design logically and unjustifiably gliding from the first usage to the second in many of their arguments. For this reason alone, he thought design arguments should be banished."

Publications

''A Critique of Design-Arguments''
(1883)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hicks, Lewis Ezra 1839 births 1921 deaths 19th-century American zoologists American geologists American skeptics Critics of creationism Denison University alumni Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni People from Kalida, Ohio

Career

Critique of design arguments

Publications

See also

References