It was Charles Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus Darwin who proposed the first ‘evolutionary theory’ in his Zoonomia of 1794, arguing that all species must have originated from the same ‘primitive filament’ and subsequently developed and differentiated. Then in 1809, French biologist Lamarck proposed that species acquired characteristics in response to their environment and these were inherited by their offspring. These theories did not have a factual basis and were generally thought absurd.
Lyell’s geological theories provided a turning-point, greatly influencing the young Charles Darwin. He began to seriously consider that if the Earth was undergoing a slow and continual process of change, so might animals and plants in order to adapt to their changing environment.
Following extensive travels and observations, Darwin found the key to the mechanism of evolution, natural selection. He recognised small variations between individuals which could be advantageous in certain environments, making them ‘fitter’ and more likely to survive and produce offspring. Over a long period these variations would spread through a population and eventually the variants would become different species.
Darwin’s theory, supported by a vast amount of evidence, was published first in 1858, jointly with the work of Alfred Russell Wallace (who independently proposed the same principle of evolution), and then as the Origin of Species the following year.
The first edition of the Origin was sold out within one day; the public were stunned and the theologians outraged. The Family Herald stated, ‘Society must fall to pieces if Darwinism be true’. The Origin did not aim to attack religion but had an anti-religious effect. It contradicted the Bible, displaced man from the centre of the universe and questioned moral divinity because of the inbuilt randomness and apparent cruelty of the selection process.
Thomas Huxley fought the battle for Darwinism almost single-handedly against mighty theological opposition and public prejudice. In 1873 it was noted that, ‘Darwinists are not necessarily hoofed and horned monsters, but are occasionally of pacific habits, and may even be detected in the act of going to church.’ By the end of the 19th century most opposition had died out and the Church accepted Evolution, maintaining however that God had given man his soul.