Who was Ernst Haeckel? Phenomenon? Flawed? Faker?

Are you learning Haeckel's embryos ("one of the most famous fakes in biology") in your school textbooks as proof positive of common descent?

Or are you learning that his work was "profoundly and dangerously flawed"?

Here's an article, "Who Was ... Ernst Haeckel?" by James Nicholson and Eric Margetts, in Biologist (Volume 54, Number 1, February 2007), that puts the phenomenal faker (and icon of the Nazis) in context:

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"Haeckel was always interesting, artistic and eminently quotable, sometimes regrettably – and at considerable cost to civilisation."

"Haeckel was also dogged by accusations of scientific fraud during his life. It was
believed by some that the embryo illustrations described above used to verify his theory of recapitulation were deliberately faked by him to generate wider support for his theory. There is compelling evidence that Haeckel was a flamboyant character who believed in his own theories with a religious zeal, sometimes taking greatly extrapolated leaps that owed as much to his powerful imagination and creative abilities as his scientific rigour and reason. His speculative theories and sometimes impressionistic interpretation of observations tarnished his reputation within the scientific community. However, he remained a hugely popular figure in Germany and was considered a national hero."

"His work was hugely influential yet profoundly and even dangerously flawed."

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The fact that Haeckel - a more enthusiastic Darwinist than Darwin, according to Nicholson and Margetts - was an icon of the Nazis doesn't mean, of course, that Haeckel approved of all the Nazis said and did.

Still, you can be pretty sure the Nazis wouldn't have had as much use for humanitarian Nobelist Albert Schweitzer.

Common descent, as biochemist and ID theorist Edge of EvolutionMike Behe notes, is a reasonable idea. It does not rule out design in the universe and life forms, and it certainly should not need fakes to defend it.

But if you are learning Haeckel's fake embryos at school, take Behe's advice and shut up about what you know for now. Lots of people, maybe smarter than you, have been Expelled for telling what they know when they are still vulnerable to the Darwin lobby. Wait till you have tenure at a university or an otherwise (relatively) unassailable position before you start demanding truth and accountability.

Meanwhile, here is a correction, including photos.