Why did the program start with the assertion that The Origin of Species was the 'most deadly weapon' of science in its 'war against religion' ?
Has science really waged war against religion for as long as that, or is this just something of the last few decades in response to the growing creationist movement?
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation was a book published anonymously in England in 1844. It proposed a natural theory of cosmic and biological evolution, tying together numerous speculative scientific theories of the age, and created considerable political controversy in Victorian society for its radicalism and unorthodoxy.
SOF has worked with Cambridge University Library to present a narrated tour of Darwin's private notebooks and hand sketches with one of the few scholars who knows it best, David Kohn. You can zoom in tight on high-resolution images, listen to a scholar tell you more about why Darwin was writing the selected passages, and read the transcript of Darwin's cryptic handwriting!
Darwin was born 200 years ago, and 50 years later unveiled his theory of natural selection. To mark these anniversaries we bring you the definitive guide to the naturalist's great book, with extracts from key chapters and essays from leading scientists and thinkers including Richard Dawkins and former Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries
His books sell in their millions, his TV programmes are rapturously received, and he’s appeared in Doctor Who. Not bad for a 67-year-old academic. Now Richard Dawkins, scourge of creationists, is championing his Victorian hero
Welcome to the Darwin Correspondence Project’s new web site. The main feature of the site is an Online Database with the complete, searchable, texts of around 5,000 letters written by and to Charles Darwin up to the year 1865.