Today is the 150th Anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. This is almost certainly the most important book ever written, and Charles Darwin’s idea has been aptly described as “The Best Idea Anyone Ever Had.”
Darwin waited nearly 20 years to publish his book. The prominent theory on why he waited is summed as this: he was afraid of the negative backlash. Darwin knew how deep his idea would cut across old mysticism, and also knew that it would not just be a flesh wound. The idea of evolution wasn’t a flimsy knife, it was a mighty sword. I believe Darwin understood that the very fact that the theory was so strong would be the thing that would make it so dangerous (perhaps for him).
During the time leading up to the writing of the book Darwin had researched the subject in great depth, and from then to the time of publishing had collected an even larger body of evidence. When he did publish he did so with a well thought out theory that seemed to answer all the arguments against it. He published a wealth (literally, for mankind) of knowledge that he had ingeniously analyzed and scrutinized.
How prescient this man was about its theory, and its reception! Today, 150 years later, evolution is considered a scientific fact, so strong is the evidence in the view of the experts. Predictions laid down based on evolution via natural selection have come true over and over. We find new fossils yearly, right where they should be in the strata, right where they should be evolutionarily between already-known species. We have found the “missing links” between the lower primates and man. We now have molecular and DNA evidence supporting evolution. In fact, there isn’t a single scientific fact known to modern biologists that disagrees with evolution. Yet the old mysticism clings to bronze-age creation myths instead of recognizing the most well proven scientific theory ever. Darwin was right about the science, but he was also right about his theory’s social implications, and that some would reject his theory without ever giving it a chance.
As a free thinking human I think this day should be celebrated as a high holiday. Darwin’s achievement surely ranks with the discover of fire, the first written word, and Newton’s, Einstein’s and Heisenberg’s respective works in physics. Sitting on top of the theory of evolution is all of modern biology. Countless lives have been saved because of scientists developing medicine based on this knowledge. It is a triumph of the human intelligence, one note in a song that tells us that we can shape our species’s destiny with critical thinking and scientific reasoning.
