ABSTRACT
Over the last five centuries, scientists have been emboldened to explore the world, and the public has generally embraced the practical benefits of the scientific method. But when science presents a new way to see a facet of life which a significant portion of the public finds sacrosanct, the findings threaten group identity. This was the case in 1859 when the naturalist Charles Darwin published his theory, On the Origin of the Species. The book caused a national scandal which only grew with publications by his supporters and then of his The Descent of Man. Darwin’s theory of natural selection—as published, but also as filtered through Victorian media and disseminated by word of mouth—rocked British society’s sense of stability, becoming a threat to one segment of society and a cause for celebration to another. The idea that life has natural laws that drive the development of species was attacked by churches and by scientists trained to link science to religion. But it was celebrated by supporters of science as a distinct profession and liberals who saw a breakthrough for the development of human potential. An especially contaminative effect was that Darwin’s findings of similarities among humans inflamed racism, including in the scientific community, and reinforced imperialism. This led to popular caricatures conflating Blacks and apes, Darwin as an ape and a sermon in which a minister spoke to a stuffed gorilla.
