Ignorance is ruled out.
By his own confession, Weismann was fully aware of the inadequacy of Natural Selection as a scientific doctrine . The Biblical paradigm was no longer fully convincing. Ever since the Enlightenment took hold in the mind of Western humanity, the power of the Church had waned steadily. It had entered into a pacific old age. Western civilization was ready for a basal paradigm shift, and the apparent best candidate around for new paradigm was Darwinism.