Felipe Navas
European History 4460
Professor Ping
(optional) exam 2

 

Why was Charles Darwin's Origen of Species so controversial and shocking to the Victorian Age? Is the theory of evolution a direct attack on the Christian Religion?

 

In 1859, the foundation of an old system was shaken by what many thought was a blasphemy against God himself. The Origen of Species by Charles Darwin was and remains to be a controversial little book. Who would have thought that the work of a shy man like Charles Darwin would have had such an impact in past generations and generations to come?

Darwin suffered emotionally and intellectually with every discovery that he made because the more he learned about The Origen of Species, the more he understood that the traditional idea of creation, could not be so; or as far as we understand time. As Darwin worked on his theory, the same ideas that fed his logic, during the day, would cause him to have night mares. In other words, it is fair, to say that for many years during his research, a struggle took place in Darwin's mind: empirical science vs. the orthodoxy of religion.

Darwin, the man, found himself divided between the traditional man and the man of science. As a traditional man, he was supposed to do what society did, don't ask why but, believed. At this time, even now, young men were taught to have faith in religion and that preachers were authorities who one should not question. Sometimes, religion becomes just methods to control the lives, behavior, and even ideas of members of society who are willing to comply with such norms.

"The real challenge of Darwinism for Victorians was that it turned life into an amoral chaos displaying no evidence of a divine authority or any sense of purpose or design. (Browne, 2006, p. 86)

However; Darwin, remained a church goer even after he had published his now famous or infamous Origen of Species. It is not clear if Darwin was able to find the equilibrium of his two worlds. He was without a doubt a man of science; he found great pleasure in evidence.

As his love for science increased, his interest in blind faith decreased; he seems to have faith in reason. Scientific research became his passion, evidence his joy, common sense and logic his moral compass.

"…I had gradually come, by this time, to see that the Old testament from its manifestly false history of the world and from its attributing to God the feeling of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian. The question then continually rose before my mind and would not be banished,- is it credible that if God were now to make a revelation to the Hindoos, would he permit it to be connected with the belief in Vishnu, Siva, &c, as Christianity is connected with the Old Testament. This appears to me utterly incredible. By further reflecting that the clearest evidence would be requisite to make any sane man believe in the miracles by which Christianity is supported,-- that the more we know of the fixed laws of nature the more incredible do miracles become,-- that men at that time were ignorant and credulous to a degree almost incomprehensible by us,-- that the Gospel cannot be proved to have been written simultaneously with the events,-- that they differ in many important details, far too important as it seemed to me to be admitted as the usual inaccuracies of eyewitnesses;-- by such reflections as these, which I give not as having the least novelty or value, but as they influenced me, I gradually came to disbelieved in Christianity as a divine revelation…" (Green, 2011)

    

To many, Charles Darwin's Origen of Species is a direct attack on Christianity. Because some Christians believe that if a scientist denies the bible theory of creation, it is denying God himself. There seem to be a fallacy here because The Origen of Species is a work full of evidence of evolution among animals, including humans, throughout time not evidence of the non-existence of God. What Charles Darwin denied was the literal interpretation of the bible. If he denied God later in life; he might have had different reasons for that. But with his work Origen of Species, he was presenting evidences and saying, seven days for the creation of Species, can't be taken literal, because it takes many years for species to evolve in to what they are now.

However, for many Christians who believe in the literal interpretation of the bible, The Origen of Species seems as a direct attack on their faith and their dogma. Darwin's theory was not a direct attack on Christianity. However, the authorities of various religious institutions saw it as a direct threat to their reign of absolute control over the people. Origen of Species, offered peoples a different approach to life other than the literal interpretation of the bible by religious authorities; whom, sometimes would use their absolute authority to intimidated and oppress their followers with threats of eternal condemnation.

After an in-depth study of Origen of Species, one can see that it is not an attack on Christianity; however, it is an awakening call to not allow faith to become the end of reason. And if Darwin, denied God, it is not clear to me; if he did so, I strongly disagree. Because, "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" (Dr. Carl Sagan)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Browne, J. (2006). Darwin's Origen of Species A Biography. In C. Darwin, Darwin's Origen of Species A Biography (p. 153). New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.

Green, J. C. (2011, April Monday). Darwin and Religion. Retrieved April 4/18/11, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org: http://www.jstor.org/stable/985427