Based on Catholic doctrine, the Victorian society in which Darwin lived, believed that God created all existence “perfect and unchangeable” due to the literal interpretation of the Bible (Barrett, Rubin & Holt, 2010; Rice & Moloney, 2008: 40). Through Darwin’s theory of natural selection & variation of living forms, he proved scientifically that creature and plant species in fact evolved – they change to adapt and survive in their environment (Rice et al., 2008:56-57; Barrett et al., 2010). Darwin therefore brought into question their truth as represented by religion which formed the foundation of societal culture and belief at the time and resurfaced questions previously explained by creation scientists and intelligent design theorists through concepts such as providential design (Scupin & DeCorse, 2015: 67; Howard, 2001:92). Darwin brought into question what society knew and accepted in faith as an unshakable truth. For this Darwin was heavily criticised. Darwin was challenged due to his exclusion of the concept of “perfection and progress” and including extinctions as part of his theory (Howard, 2001:92). …show more content…
To Darwin nature was brutal, unforgiving and chaotic. This was in direct conflict of society’s idealistic depiction of nature as gentle and sentimental (Barrett et al. 2010). In accordance with his observations, Earth had limited resources, but living organisms possessed endless possibilities to multiply (Scupin et al., 2015:49; Rice et al. 2008:55). This was an uncomfortable and unsettling pill for society to