Evolutionists Exploit Some People for Propaganda
Dr Bergman continues with
Smoliga’s “3 Monsters of Science” to
show another one that infects Darwinism.
Evolution Is infected with the Three Monsters of Science
Monster 2: Werewolf Conclusions
by Jerry Bergman, PhD
The second of university professor and science researcher James Smoliga’s three monsters of Science is the “werewolf conclusions.”[1]
A werewolf (from the Old English wer, meaning “man”) was a mythical human who could physically convert into a wolf or a hybrid wolf-human creature. The physical transformation is part of a myth in which a human turns into a wolf or a bipedal beast that can be voluntary or forced by a curse, blessing, or magic. Stories of human-to-wolf transformations extend back thousands of years.
Werewolf conclusions in science occur when researchers begin with a relatively modest observation or finding but arrive at far grander conclusions.[2] An example that Smoliga used was the researchers who reported a statistically significant interaction between menstrual-cycle phase and contraceptive use. Somehow, this research conclusion became a study that provided insight into human evolution, concluding that sexual attraction was related to the dollar amount of tips they received for their lap dancing. Higher sexual attraction level produced higher tips, and sexual attraction, they postulated, was related to a woman’s estrus cycle.[3]
The researchers concluded from this research that
“In serially monogamous species such as ours, women’s estrous signals may have evolved an extra degree of plausible deniability and tactical flexibility to maximize women’s ability to attract high-quality, extra-pair partners just before ovulation, while minimizing the primary partner’s mate guarding and sexual jealousy.”
It is now known that the tip amount was influenced primarily by the day of the week they worked, not “estrous signals.”[4] Specifically, Fridays and Saturdays contributed most to the dancer’s tip income over the week because those days had more clients than the other week days.
A Historical Example of the Werewolf Monster of Science
A woman with excess hair, a clinical condition called hirsutism, often has thick, dark, coarse hair in a male-like pattern that appears on her body, especially where women do not commonly have hair: on the face, back, chest, and abdomen. The extreme condition of hirsutism is called severe congenital hypertrichosis.
One now-disproved evolutionary explanation for this condition is a mutation on the X chromosome that acts as an “on-switch” turning on an ancient, latent gene network that produced this hair pattern which was common in monkeys and in our evolutionary ancestors.[5] It is now confirmed that this rare medical condition has nothing to do with our evolutionary past, but is caused by microdeletions, microduplications, or inversions on chromosome 17q24.2-q24.3.[6]
The estimated prevalence of congenital hypertrichosis is less than 1 per million individuals. Since the Middle Ages, fewer than 100 cases have been documented worldwide in the scientific and medical literature.
Those mutants suffering from “werewolf syndrome” have often, in the past, been called a missing link. The most well-known example was the “ape woman,” Julia Pastrana (1834–1860), who was a 19th-century performer of indigenous Mexican descent who was marketed as an evolutionary “missing link” or a human-animal hybrid.[7] Her entire four-foot-six body, the sensationalized 19th-century freak shows claimed, was covered in thick black hair like on some men. In fact, she had dark terminal hair similar to a human beard only on her face, limbs, and torso. Some mistakenly thought she resembled an ape, but she was fully human.
Medically, Julia suffered from both hypertrichosis terminalis which covered abnormal parts of her body in hair and also gingival hyperplasia, which altered her facial features. This caused her to have an distorted facial appearance, as shown in the illustrations. Some evolutionists thought it made her look apelike, but that was far from the truth. Appearance aside, she was an intelligent, talented, multilingual woman who loved to read, was a skilled seamstress, could cook, and was a devout Catholic.
The Abuse of Julia Pastrana
Julia’s husband and manager, Theodore Lent, tried to isolate her from general society because he feared that if people realized she possessed many normal traits and talents, this would ruin the “wild ape” Darwinian-link persona he marketed to sell tickets. This episode causes shame to Darwinians today. It reminds historians of the Ota Benga episode when an African pygmy was displayed as a missing link in a zoo.
Julia had only two rare genetic conditions, and in contrast to apes, she stood upright, talked, and displayed excellent social graces. Julia was entirely human, a Homo sapiens, and it was Darwinian racism, not her body, that relegated her to a missing link that was no longer missing. When Darwin’s Origin of Species was published, and evolutionary controversy about ape ancestry was widely debated, she was exploited as a possible missing link, and her appearance was often viewed as having gorilla or orangutan traits.[8]
Darwinists Go Ape on Julia
Julia was “billed as the missing link between apes and man” and was evaluated by several physicians who produced certificates — which were displayed wherever Pastrana went on tour — stating that she was not really a modern woman at all, but rather a new species of half-human, half-ape hybrid.[9] The leading New York doctor, Alexander B. Mott, examined her, certifying her as a “half human and half orangutan” hybrid.
Even Ernest Haeckel discussed Julia in his book, The Evolution of Man, where he called her an ape-like human that exhibited a higher form of development than the ape.[10] Haeckel used Julia Pastrana to argue for his theories on human morphology. He controversially compared her facial features to those of primates, specifically a proboscis monkey, to support his views on evolution. Her importance as an ape woman was to the extent that she became part of the evolutionary debate in Britain.[11]
Summary
A set of genetic mutations produced a woman who had some ape-like traits; consequently, she was exploited by some to “prove” evolution or, more often, to depict an ape-woman monster. When Julia and her son died after she gave birth, they were embalmed and taxidermically preserved specifically so that her husband could continue putting them on public display to profit from them. So popular was the “ape woman” and child that their preserved bodies were exhibited in museums, amusement parks, and freak shows across Europe for over a century. She was finally given a decent burial in 2013, 150 years after Darwinians and freak shows had exploited her appearance for profit.*
The embalmed Julia and her son on display shown in an 1862 newspaper. From the Public Image Archive.
Julie Pastrana. Note how her dental abnormality makes her look even more ape-like then her abnormal hair distribution. She was a Christian, as is evident from the cross, which was openly displayed in this picture. From Wikimedia Commons.
An artist’s rendition of Julie Pastrana as a dancer. Notice how narrow her waste is in the drawing. From Wikimedia Commons.
Julia Pastrana. This picture was of Julia after she and her newborn baby had died, were embalmed, and then taxidermically preserved. From Wikimedia Commons.
References
[1] Smoliga, James. 2026a. “A Field Guide to the Monsters of Science: Part 1,” Beyond the Abstract, https://beyondtheabstract.substack.com/p/a-field-guide-to-the-monsters-of Science.
[2] Smoliga, James. 2026c. “A Field Guide to the Monsters of Science: Part 3… The Witch’s Headlines,” Beyond the Abstract, https://beyondtheabstract.substack.com/p/a-field-guide-to-the-monsters-of-5d3.
[3] Miller, Geoffrey, et al. 2007 “Ovulatory Cycle Effects on Tip Earnings by Lap Dancers: Economic Evidence for Human Estrus?,” Evolution and Human Behavior 28(6): 375-381.
[4] Smoliga, 2026c.
[5] Live Science Staff. 2011. “ ‘Werewolf’ Gene May Explain Excess Hair Disorder,” Live Science. https://www.livesciencecom/14430-werewolf-disorder-gene-discovered-excess-hair.html, June 3.
[6] Sun, Miao, et al. 2009. “Copy-number mutations on chromosome 17q24.2-q24.3 in congenital generalized hypertrichosis terminalis with or without gingival hyperplasia.” American Journal of Human Genetics 84(6): 807-813.
[7] Smith, Calvin. 2021. “Tragic Tales of Evolutionary Exploitation.” Answers in Genesis. https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/calvin-smith/2021/11/02/tragic-tales-evolutionary-exploitation/.
[8] Browne, Janet and Sharon Messenger. 2003. “Victorian spectacle: Julia Pastrana, the bearded and hairy female.” Endeavour 27(4): 155-159. doi: 10.1016/j.endeavour.2003.10.006.
[9] Carlton, Genevieve. 2024. “The Story of Julia Pastrana, The ‘Ape Woman’ Sideshow Performer.” ATI (All That’s Interesting). https://allthatsinteresting.com/julia-pastrana.
[10] Haeckel, Ernest. 1879. The Evolution of Man. New York, NY: D. Appleton, p. 374.
[11] Gylseth, Christopher Hals, and Lars O. Toverud. 2003. Julia Pastrana: The Tragic Story of the Victorian Ape Woman. Cloud, Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton Publishing.
*Note: Gemini AI comments on Julia Pastrana’s own feelings about her exploitation:
“Julia Pastrana did not choose or endorse the dehumanizing marketing, and historical accounts indicate it deeply saddened and distressed her. While she participated in her performances, she had virtually no control over her career, image, or personal autonomy.”
Dr. Jerry Bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology for over 40 years at several colleges and universities including Bowling Green State University, Medical College of Ohio where he was a research associate in experimental pathology, and The University of Toledo. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Wayne State University in Detroit, the University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University. He has over 1,900 publications in 14 languages and 40 books and monographs. His books and textbooks that include chapters that he authored are in over 1,800 college libraries in 27 countries. So far over 80,000 copies of the 60 books and monographs that he has authored or co-authored are in print. For more articles by Dr Bergman, see his Author Profile.