Our Way to Understand the World: Darwin’s Controversial Inheritance

Abstract

Shortly after he had completed the first draft of his theory of evolution in 1844, Charles Darwin wrote to his friend Joseph Hooker, the botanist, that publishing the theory seemed to him “like confessing a murder” (Glaubrecht 2009, p. 161). Right from the beginning, Darwin was aware of the far-reaching impact his theory would have. And this was probably one of the main reasons for his postponing the publication of his ideas for such a long time. After the completion of the 230 page text in 1844, it was another 15 years (!) before his famous book On the Origin of Species was published. Since that time 150 years have passed, but the theory of evolution is as controversial as ever. Darwin’s dangerous idea is still putting many traditional world views through some very hard tests. This is the central theme to which I have devoted the following thoughts. I have divided my study into three parts: I shall start by shedding some light on the conflict between Darwin’s challenging idea and traditional (Christian) beliefs, a conflict that has lasted till this very day. In the second part, I want to focus on the ideological abuse of the theory of evolution. The third and final part introduces Julian Huxley’s concept of ‘evolutionary humanism’, which links Darwin’s scientific inheritance with a distinctly humanist ethic.