The Big Event

England, mid-to-late 1800s – a time and place when science was still primitive. Scientists were working so hard to figure things out, you could hear their pens scribbling away, their beakers clanking together, the gears in their brains turning. And because the ratio of religious people to atheists was much higher then than it is today, even hardcore scientists believed in a creator. Churches were full on Sundays because religion was commonly accepted. Of course God created everything! What else could possibly explain it?

Meanwhile, on the sunny tropical paradise that is the Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin was scrutinizing the beaks of squawking birds and the shells of massive tortoises in an attempt to discover the origin of life. His findings completely contradicted with the common belief of the time. But the evidence was all there. The differences among the species he observed could be explained clearly by environmental variation. As 1872 drew to a close and the temperature in England dropped, Darwin published the book that became the foundation of evolutionary biology. On the Origin of the Species drew criticism from scientists and non-scientists alike – it was certainly cold in England, but most people had their Bibles to keep them warm, and they didn’t need some other book to help.

This was the first in a series of stepping stones that has led to the modern conversation on evolution and creationism. Without Darwin’s work, who knows if the theory of evolution would have progressed the way it did? Who knows if over a century later, a bowtied science guy and the founder of the Creationist Museum would still find themselves on a stage contributing to the conversation?