Why was evoloution only gradually accepted?

Answer 1

Evolution, the change in allele frequency over time in a population of organisms, was accepted pretty much bu the time Darwin came on the scene. The theory of evolution by natural selection was a harder sell. Not only were there religious objections, which were silly, but scientific objections to the theory that developed toward the end of the 19th century as genetics took off. These objections were to the possibility of natural selection being the actual driving force of much of evolution. Many geneticists were " saltationists ", that is they though evolution happened in large mutations instead of a more gradual process. Not until about 1930 when the mathematical joining of Biology and genetics, called the new synthesis, come about was Darwin finally vindicated in most of his ideas about natural selection.