Lyell, Darwin, and Evolutionary Thought Shifts

Charles Lyell and Natural Selection

Principles of Change in Species

(b) Law of Change: Principles of mobility applied to animal species. The history of mankind is not planned or organized. Everything is open to change and unpredictable. There is complete historical uncertainty.

Species Identity and Gradualism

(c) Dissolved Idea of Stable Identities for Species: Species never originated suddenly, but as a process and a transition, through the gradual accumulation of slight differences.

Natural Selection as a Destructive Force

(d) Natural Selection: This mechanism only preserved some species by destroying many; it was arguably a destructive force. If everything in mankind is subject to competition (Natural Selection), we are all enemies of everyone.

Darwin’s Anxieties

The world, according to Darwin, is based on a war of nature, with the main threats being famine and death. However, he also noted a certain “grandeur” and admirable quality in these mechanisms.

Justifications and Defenses: Darwin always included explanations and justifications (phrases intended to counter objections or prejudices) for those who opposed scientific evolution, particularly powerful enemies coming from religious sectors who might have ended his career if he had not explained himself carefully. He drew parallels by putting forward the law of gravity of Newton, which had already faced religious rejection.

Critical Thinking and Biblical Analysis

• Other sources of critical thinking also affected the Bible: critical thinking began to analyze the Bible as a historical text.
• Scholars started to realize it was not a homogeneous text, but a collection of books written by different people, sometimes containing contradictions.
• David Friedrich Strauss: His work, Das Leben Jesu, attempted to illuminate which parts of the text were contradictory.

Anglicanism in Danger: Tensions and Tendencies

Reasons for Religious Decline

Two main reasons contributed to the general decline of religious authority:

1. Science was overcoming religious dogmas through scientific explanation.
2. Low reputation of religious institutions, exacerbated by a great number and dispersion of religious groups.

Church of England Status

a) Opposition and Dissent: The Church of England did not have as many followers as it assumed and faced significant dissent and opposition from a wide variety of groups. Actually, the Anglican Church was only dominant in some southern, middle-class, rural institutions.

Institutional Support Diminishes

b) Reduced Institutional Support: The Church was primarily granting rights and aid only to Anglicans. Consequently:

• In 1829, rights had to be extended to Catholics.
• In 1860, a Jew was elected to the House of Commons for the first time.
• In 1885, Bradlaugh became the first Member of Parliament to enter without having to swear a religious oath (the first non-confessional MP).