Abstract
The modern theory of evolution, commonly known as the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution, and sometimes referred to as the synthetic theory, since it purports to be a synthesis of modern scientific knowledge rooted in classical Darwinism, has been set forth during the past few decades by leading evolutionary theorists, such as R.A. Fisher, George Gaylord Simpson, Ernst Mayr, and Sir Julian Huxley. This modified form of the Darwinian theory of evolution has never been unanimously accepted by evolutionists, but nevertheless has been so widely accepted that Mayr, with reference to the many symposia held to mark the one hundredth anniversary in 1959 of the publication of Darwin's said " ... we are almost startled at the complete unanimity in the interpretation of evolution presented by the participants. Nothing could show more clearly how internally consistent and firmly established the synthetic theory is."