What problems did the concept of evolution pose to the scientific and religious worlds?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. Charles Darwin did not originate the idea of evolution, but offered a new explanation of how evolution took place through natural selection. He published this in On the Origin of the Species to suggest that mutations would occur over time as well as developments of certain characteristics, but had no way of explaining it without the science of genetics. Subsequently, he carried this hypothesis further in The Descent of Man, in which he postulated that humans descended via natural selection from less advanced primates. However, several objections arose to his idea of natural selection: First, many within the scientific world felt it was unsubstantiated, and referred to Darwin as "monkey man." Others objected to this on a religious basis, as it inferred that God was not the creator of humankind. Also problematic within the scientific community was the mutation of Darwin's theory of natural selection to the adaptation of Social Darwinism, in which people like Herbert Spencer argued that the natural selection "thriving" could be applied to civilizations, and therefore less advanced civilizations were inferior; it was, in fact, Spencer who coined the term often attributed to Darwin, "survival of the fittest."