Darwin’s Theory Of Evolution

Never has a scientist, with one book, caused such a stir in the world as Darwin did with The Origin of Species. His ideas, the fruit of many years of patient thought and study, were attacked by learned and ignorant alike. He was called a madman, a deceiver, and an anti-Christian. Long and bitter quarrels arose, and most religious people of that time attacked him. They accused him of trying to destroy religion and morals completely, though Darwin, of course, had no such intention. His book dealt in a scientific way with a problem of science, and the only critics he answered were those who attacked him on scientific grounds. His refusal to return abuse did not stop his enemies, however. The newspapers were filled with letters and articles pouring scorn on the very idea of evolution and the less the writers knew about the subject, the more violent their attack was. Darwin, however, was well-supported by a few able scientists, who untiringly spread what he taught. He gathered so many facts, and built so surely on these unanswerable facts, that his ideas carried great weight once they were understood. After the first stormy outbursts had died away, men began to see things Darwin’s way. Slowly and quietly, Darwin’s teachings conquered the world.