Darwin's very special...
because he hit on something through careful and patient research.
He hit on something that was important...
and revolutionized the way people thought about...
human beings and where they come from.
Certainly, Darwin was a genius.
He, at a stroke, solved a problem...
which should have been solved thousands of years before, but wasn't.
His answer of natural selection is breathtakingly simple.
The ratio of that which is explained...
to that which does the explaining, is colossal.
It's a very, very simple theory.
Darwin was not a lone genius. He was the leader of the field...
but he was not on his own. He was supported by others...
and exchanged with others, his ideas.
For him to be able to produce not only the theory of evolution...
but all the other scientific work he was able to do...
I think is remarkable, and I think Darwin...
would be a good choice for Man of The Millennium.
Even today we are still feeling the shock waves...
as it were, of what Darwin offered us.
Less than 150 years after Darwin identified the process of evolution...
mankind wants to remove its traditional role.
Cloning and genetically modified food raise serious questions and fears.
Well, in one sense, there's nothing new about genetic engineering.
In one sense, genetic engineering goes back centuries, even millennia...
to when people first started selectively breeding:
you can breed farm animals and plants.
Darwin used that as his model for natural selection...
where nature does the selecting instead of the human breeder.
But that's old. What we've got now is a new kind of genetic modification...
where scientists go straight in...
and modify genes or import genes from other sources directly.
Clearly, that could have great benefits but equally clearly...
if you wanted to make a really lethal biological weapon...
then genetic modification would be the way to do it.
This is Darwin's house in Kent.
It was here that the great scientist and writer, Charles Darwin...
came to spend over 40 years of his life...
researching and analyzing his scientific findings.
It was his haven, his family home, his laboratory and his library.
His work, obsession and genius grew and grew...
during his years at Down House.
When he came to Down, he had the theory of evolution in his head...
but he needed to work out the details and also to work out the proof...
and it was here that he managed to do that...
with patience, experiments in the kitchen garden...
and in the hothouses, with very careful observations...
in the meadows and along the country paths around...
and, obviously, reading in his study.
Darwin lived and worked here for 40 years...
and probably hardly left the place for more than a week a year.
If you think of a scientific career, you might expect a person...
to be working in a museum or in a university.
But Darwin was working here at Down House...
and everything he worked on had to come into that one room, the old study...
which is where he lived, worked and wrote.
Darwin had seen Down's proximity to London as a major advantage.
He initially intended to spend a few days each month in London...
maintaining his contacts with the scientific community...
but his health restricted these wishes.
During the 17 years when he was working on 'The Origin of Species'...
Darwin was constantly researching and publishing material...
on an ever widening area of natural history.
A prodigious letter writer, Darwin corresponded regularly...
with scientists like Lyell and Hooker, who visited him at Down.
He established links with commercial breeders, naturalists and botanists...
as well as any other source capable of illuminating the process of heredity.
Down House became a center of debate...
and a focus point for the scientific world.
He was receiving up to 14,000 letters a year from admirers of his work.
Today it is still a place of scientific pilgrimage.
Darwin had not always lived in Kent.
He was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury:
the fifth of six children.
As a member of an affluent upper middle class family...
he was to enjoy a life of privilege.
Darwin's childhood, until the death of his mother...
was spent at the heart of a happy and affectionate family.
In common with many men destined for great things...
Darwin's youth gave few clues to his gifted nature.
On the contrary, at times his father, Robert, a successful physician...
despaired of Charles making any contribution to society.
Surprisingly enough, Darwin wasn't a very good pupil at school.
In fact, in his last year at Shrewsbury, his father wrote him a letter...
saying that he was good for nothing but dog shooting and rat catching...
and he was going to be an embarrassment to his family.
But he probably wasn't very good because he was getting a classical education...
and what he was really interested in was science.
And so, with his brother, he was setting up chemical experiments in a lab...
and also the shooting was quite good and set him in good stead...
because on the Beagle voyage he could go out and kill...
as many specimens as he needed to.
He showed clearly from an early age...
that he was going to be a naturalist.
He was very keen. He collected beetles...
and shells and plants.
After a false start at Edinburgh University...
where he abandoned a course in medicine...
Darwin was dispatched to Cambridge University...
a powerhouse of the Anglican establishment...
in 1827 to study to be a clergyman.
He had never been keen on medicine.
He had followed his father on his rounds in Shrewsbury.
He was prepared to give it a try, but when he went to Edinburgh...
and studied and attended the anatomy lectures...
he found that he couldn't stand watching other people in pain.
The sight of blood. And it was really his squeamishness...
that led him to decide that he couldn't make it his career.
After his father realized that he wasn't going to be able to be a doctor...
he decided it might be a good idea...
for Charles to follow an alternative professional career.
And so, the obvious easiest solution was for him to become a clergyman...
and Darwin spent several years at Cambridge studying to be a clergyman...
but most of the time he spent attending scientific lectures...
and producing natural history studies...
and so by the end of his university degree period...
I think it was pretty obvious that Charles didn't want to be...
a member of the clergy, but actually was more interested in science.
He formed a strong friendship with John Henslow...
and, with his encouragement, graduated successfully.
It was Henslow who suggested Darwin for the position of ships naturalist...
on board HMS Beagle's surveying voyage to South America.
Darwin's father, Robert...
who was required to finance his son's trip...
was reluctant to agree.
He saw this as yet more evidence of a need for diversion.
It was Josiah Wedgwood, Darwin's uncle and future father-in-law...
who persuaded Robert to change his mind.
In 1831, Darwin set sail on the five-year expedition...
which not only was to change his life...
but would have a dramatic impact on the future of science.
Darwin's five-year voyage endowed him with a new self-confidence...
and brought him scientific acclaim.
He was happy and able to indulge in his favorite pastimes without interruption.
He spent long periods ashore, gathering data and specimens...
many of which he sent back to England to various scientists and to London Zoo.
These times ashore were a release from the almost continuous seasickness...
which afflicted him.
On his expeditions, Darwin's shooting skills...
enabled him to collect a wide variety of bird species.
These, together with his other specimens and detailed scientific observations...
were part of the gradual process of discovery...
which laid the foundations of his theory.
However, among those destined to become deeply significant...
were the studies he made on the Galapagos Islands.
He observed that the species of finches and tortoises varied distinctly...
from island to island...
but the true significance of these findings was to become clear...
after his return to England in 1836.
Following his return from the voyage aboard HMS Beagle...
Darwin had begun to catalogue and publish his scientific findings.
However, the observations he made while on the voyage...
had aroused his doubts about the biblical version of creation.
He could no longer accept that species were inalterably fixed.
While making public the details of hisjourney...
Darwin kept private a series of notebooks devoted to more...
controversial issues.
This work was destined to produce his theory of natural selection.
Although he was to spend 20 years in further research...
by 1842 Darwin had completed an outline study...
which identified the basic elements of his theory.
However, he made no attempt to publish his findings.
During the first part of Darwin's scientific life back in England...
he was not widely known, but he had a number...
of very close friends among the great scientists of the time.
I think the obvious ones to mention are Sir Charles Lyell, the geologist...
and Sir Joseph Hooker, who was the director of Kew Gardens.
They would often come here...
to talk through his ideas with him, their own ideas, argue and discuss.
On his return, Darwin published several volumes of geological observations...
as well as hisjournal of researches: a detailed account of the voyage.
Darwin valued his prestigious position and was reluctant to endanger it.
He was convinced the publication of The Origin of Species...
would be greeted with public denunciation...
even though evolutionary theories were not new.
He began writing the paper that would become 'The Origin of Species'...
fairly soon after he got back from the Beagle voyage, so in about 1837, 38...
but he delayed publishing for nearly 20 years...
because he was so terrified of what the public reaction might be.
He had seen, as a young man, admired fellow scientists...
being vilified, losing their positions in universities and museums...
because they had even voiced evolutionary theories.
So, I think he was very justifiably frightened of the public reaction...
and the effect it might have on his family.
The history of evolutionary thought stretches back to the ancient world.
Over the centuries a variety of theories were advanced to explain life on earth.
However, by the 19th century...
an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge...
made it impossible to evade the challenge to religious belief.
The early work of the geologist, Charles Lyell...
revealed that the earth had been subject to a process of slow...
regular change.
The idea of divine creation was challenged by research on fossils...
which showed some species to be extinct.
Extinction was not easily explicable in terms of orthodox Christianity.
The religious establishment identified the biblical story of Noah's Ark...
as evidence that a series of cataclysmic events...
accounted for the scientific findings.
In effect, they argued that God, having punished the world for its sins...
then repopulated it.
Given this debate, when Darwin's controversial book was published...
it did not emerge into a society unprepared for evolutionary views.
What society was much less prepared for...
was Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection.
Certainly, the fact that in Darwin's theory of evolution...
millions of creatures seemed to serve no particular purpose...
except to advance evolution, would be a worry...
but I don't think one need say that the millions of creatures...
which existed on the paths of evolution...
existed merely in order to further evolution...
and had nojoy, no pleasure, in their own lives.
I think they, no doubt, had a lower form of life...
but were still happy to exist.
So, I don't think they're a main problem of evil.
There are other problems of evil and suffering...
but I don't see that it contributes largely to the matter of evolution.
In the years immediately following his return to England...
Darwin had not devoted all his energies to work.
In 1839 Darwin married his cousin and friend, Emma Wedgwood.
Both Emma and Charles came from wealthy families.
Emma's Wedgwood dowry increased the considerable income...
which Darwin already enjoyed through his Darwin inheritance.
His wealth freed Darwin from all the financial concerns...
which might have restricted his research.
His choice of Emma as his wife was not based on romantic considerations.
It rested more on her suitability.
However, the couple were to demonstrate...
a deep affection for each other throughout their lives together.
Darwin described Emma as his greatest blessing.
Darwin was, by nature, sensitive, family loving and reclusive.
In September 1842, the Darwins...
together with their two children, William and Anne...
took up residence at Down House.
For the next 40 years Down House was to be his much loved home and refuge...
as well as his place of work.
The house and grounds were to become a major influence on his research.
Situated in 18 acres of land in the Kent countryside...
the position of the house was ideal.
The family could enjoy a country life while being only 16 miles from London.
Initially, the appearance of the house had aroused some reservations.
However, the Darwins' recognized its potential.
Over the next few years, Down House was transformed...
into the comfortable and extensive home of an ever growing family.
Charles and Emma were devastated when their third child, Mary Eleanor...
born only days after their arrival at Down, died within a few weeks.
Darwin was worried about having married his first cousin, Emma...
because he feared that it was possibly...
one reason why many of his children had such poor health.
Two died in infancy: his daughter Marie and his last son Charles.
One died at the age of 10...
and others were invalids for much of their childhood.
He thought that inbreeding might have been a cause...
and worried about it really until the end of his life.
Large families were quite usual during this period.
What was much less common was Darwin's overt expression...
of the love and affection he felt for his children.
His relationship with his children was exceptionally warm for that period.
His children were allowed to run relatively free around the house...
to come into his study...
and their memories are very warm towards him.
They remembered being able to work with him, him playing with them...
and scientific experiments.
This was quite different from his relations with his father...
who was a very stern, rather fierce and feared character in his childhood.
Darwin became very close to his father, but only really...
after he returned from the voyage of the Beagle.
Darwin was explicit about the personal consequences...
of publishing on 'The Origin of Species' by means of natural selection...
or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life.
"I shall soon be viewed as the most despicable of men.
The most arrogant, odious beast that ever lived."
The conviction that public denunciation awaited him...
was a major factor in his decision to defer publication.
He had had this text sitting in a box for nearly 20 years.
In fact with a note attached to his wife, saying that...
if he died and she found this, could she publish it.
Darwin's reluctance to face possible abuse...
outweighed his conviction that his theory was valid.
The Great Exhibition which opened in 1851...
eight years before Darwin published 'The Origin of Species'...
was a declaration of England's belief in its manufacturing supremacy.
While manufacturers welcomed science as an industrial tool...
the ruling elite did not want science to challenge...
those political and religious ideals, used to reinforce the status quo.
The year of the Great Exhibition was a watershed for Darwin.
In that year, the death of his 10-year-old daughter, Anne...
destroyed any vestige of belief Darwin had in a personal God.
Certainly, the death of his daughter was a great blow...
and a great trial to his Christian faith.
The loss of his child was very important to him...
and disorientated him as it does with anyone who loses a child.
And it's very difficult in those circumstances to...
even for a historian working with lots of papers...
it's very difficult for such a historian...
to plot a sequence of events where one thing leads to another.
Fundamental to Christian religious belief was the Book of Genesis...
and the biblical story of creation which taught that the source of life was God.
This was not a matter of science but of faith.
It was believed that the different species were arranged hierarchically:
man being the highest species.
The fact that evolutionary theories questioned...
this most basic tenet of religious belief, was partly responsible...
for Darwin's reluctance to publish 'The Origin of Species'.
I don't think that either then or today...
there was anything in Darwin...
either 'The Origin of Species' or 'The Descent of Man'...
that challenges the teaching of the Church.
It's part of that continuing process...
whereby scientists discover more about the real world...
and theologians then have to work with that...
work with those discoveries...
and take those advances in knowledge about the real world...
and hold them beside the revelation in the New Testament...
and work with them together. Now that's the task of the theologian.
An influencing factor in Darwin's reluctance to publish...
may have been the savage treatment meted out at the book...
'The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation'.
The secretive writer was the Edinburgh publisher, Robert Chambers.
This work emerged in the hungry 40's...
when the country was under threat from widespread social unrest.
In this climate, any challenge to the authority of the Church...
was seen as subversive.
There were a variety of evolutionary theories, but none of them were...
as cohesive as what Darwin actually managed to pull together.
Various people, for example, the scientist Lamarck...
had come up with theories that led towards evolution...
but in so far as they were not necessarily denying...
the individual creation of species by God...
and that was what led to the reaction against those theories...
and it was that reaction that Darwin feared.
One man, whose contribution to 19th century science...
was an important formative influence on Darwin, was Charles Lyell.
In 1830, Lyell published 'Principles of Geology'...
the book which was to contribute to Darwin's theory of evolution.
Darwin was convinced by Lyell's concept...
that the earth had undergone a process of gradual but persistent change.
Darwin had already begun to believe...
in a natural and not divine origin of species.
His own studies added other vital elements...
which were to shape his theory.
Darwin argued that existence itself was a battle...
and that life forms which could not adapt to nature's changes...
faced extinction.
He was convinced that the species...
which possessed the most advantageous characteristics...
would survive and evolve.
His scientific observations had revealed the random variations...
which nature produces in every generation.
Darwin reasoned that where those variations...
enabled a species to adapt to circumstance...
then eventually a new species could evolve.
This was natural selection at work.
Considering that Darwin was writing more than a hundred years ago...
he is really astonishingly up to date, almost miraculously prescient.
The main thing that Darwin got wrong was his view of genetics.
He had no idea about genetics, and the phenomenon of heredity...
is extremely important to the theory.
All Darwin knew was that in some vague sense like begets like.
He knew that something went through from one generation to the next.
At the time it was thought that inheritance was blending.
You got some sort of substance from the mother...
and a substance from the father and you mix them together...
rather like mixing two pots of paint...
and the child was some kind of blend of the two parents.
You mix red paint and blue paint and you get purple paint...
and it was pointed out at the time...
in one of the hostile reviews of'The Origin of Species'...
that if that were really how heredity worked...
then there would never be enough variation...
for natural selection to work upon.
You mix your red and your blue paint and you get purple.
And no matter how many times you mix purple paint with purple paint...
you never reconstitute red and blue. The variation just goes.
Actually, it was a criticism of observed facts. Any fool could see...
that as the generations go by, variation does not get used up.
We are not much less different from each other than our grandparents were.
Having drawn up the outline of his theory...
Darwin began the long process of meticulous research...
which eventually would form part of'The Origin of Species'.
These critically important years were spent in the Kentish village of Down.
It was here at Down House that Darwin found his ideal environment.
The house and grounds enabled him to combine two aspects of life...
which were vitally important to him: his family and his work.
When he published the theory of evolution...
he became a famous figure...
and many scientists from abroad came...
on pilgrimage here, to see him. And he would show them...
the hothouse where we are now and take them also around the grounds...
so it was a central pilgrimage for scientists.
Darwin's identification of natural selection...
as a formative influence on the process of evolution...
did not emerge instantly as a coherent theory.
He spent two years formulating an explanation for his findings.
In 1838, Darwin became convinced...
that he was looking at a process of natural selection.
One of the external factors which shaped his thinking...
was an essay on human population by the economist Thomas Malthus.
It was the essay's identification of the human struggle for existence...
which made an impact on Darwin.
He realized that in their struggle for existence...
the birds and animals of the Galapagos Islands...
had evolved to survive the unique conditions of each island.
For two decades, Darwin maintained a self-imposed dual role...
as an acclaimed public figure. His work on natural history inspired respect.
At the same time he was writing evolutionary material...
which he thought was potentially seditious.
Darwin was finally forced to act when faced with the threat...
that his work was about to be overshadowed.
Darwin was unsure of his facts. Unsure of his data.
He was continually experimenting...
continually working on his specimens...
and wanted to perfect things even more.
He was only pushed into publication...
by Russell Wallace's publication...
which Wallace sent him from Malaysia...
and that moved Darwin to publish his own theory...
rather earlier than he was ready.
And Darwin was persuaded by his colleagues...
that he couldn't really sit on it for much longer.
And in the end he agreed to publish ajoint paper with Wallace.
And that was the following year Origin was published in itself.
'The Origin of Species' was published in 1859...
and the immediate reaction from the Church was quite muted.
But after a bit, there were those who were...
passionately involved in the debate...
and who were against Darwin. There were those who wanted...
to enjoy what Darwin had offered...
and relate it to Revelation and...
this, for them, was a challenge to theology.
You must remember that still in the 1850's...
F. D. Morris, a very important theologian...
thought that the earth was merely 6,000 years old.
So, this involved quite a revolution in ideas for many theologians...
and it was very difficult for them to stomach it all at once.
The idea was that somehow each individual person...
was created individually by God...
and if evolution were the case, then this falls to the ground.
Much of Darwin's research was done in the grounds of Down House.
His daily walks along here, the Sand-Walk...
enabled Darwin not only to think through his scientific findings...
but also to observe the complexities of nature.
The Sand-Walk was obviously a very important part of the garden for him...
and also for Emma.
He would go out and walk around it a number of times every day...
and it's clear that he used his walks around the Sand-Walk...
to clear out his mind, to work out difficult problems...
and, for that reason, it was important for him.
The nature of genius is such that it is often driven by obsession...
and Darwin's overwhelming obsession was his work.
He worked every day at Down House.
Neither his seclusion at Down, nor his health...
was to limit Darwin's scientific investigations.
Unable to work for more than a few hours at a time...
he devised an unvarying daily routine in which he balanced periods of work...
and rest.
Darwin was a creature of habit.
He liked a regular routine and...
he liked to follow it very carefully.
Darwin had a very rigid daily program...
which involved getting up early, having breakfast at 7.45 on his own...
walking briefly round the Sand-Walk, returning to his study...
being read to by his wife at sort of 10.30.
Another work period, then five laps round the Sand-Walk and lunch.
And so it continued through the day with periods...
of work, reading, walking.
During the early years of his marriage...
Darwin suffered a whole catalogue of illnesses...
including stomach cramps, headaches and palpitations...
which increased in frequency and potency throughout his life.
It is not clear what these symptoms denote.
Many theories have been advanced, ranging from allergic reactions...
to Chagas's Disease. What is undeniable is that...
the symptoms appeared in their most serious form when he was under stress.
Now, those bouts of extreme illness were often brought on...
by something changing or something frightening in his life.
So, could a case be made that yes it was partly psychosomatic.
It certainly made his illness worse when something unexpected happened...
and it certainly limited his travel. It was maybe that...
he didn't want to actually travel and face people, particularly...
after the Origin was published. But anybody reading his health diary...
couldn't really conclude anything else other that he was actually sick...
from the number of symptoms he wrote down.
Throughout their life together, Darwin depended totally on Emma...
and her undoubted devotion to him.
During his rest periods, she would read to him from his favorite literature.
Emma proofread all his work, including 'The Origin of Species'.
I think most people who have read about Emma Darwin, his wife...
realize that without her support throughout their married life...
he could not have achieved anything...
near what he managed to. She was a devout Christian...
while his own faith faded.
She didn't argue with him about religion.
She accepted his work as what was important to him.
But she gave him, throughout his life, very close support.
She would read to him for up to four or five hours a day...
which is a great commitment from a partner.
And she also had advantages. She spoke several languages...
and she could read German, which Charles couldn't...
and many of the scientific works of that day were being produced in Germany...
and so she was able to translate for him.
So it was very much a partnership.
In 1859, Darwin had shook the foundations of Victorian society...
with his publication of'The Origin of Species'.
This groundbreaking book proposed a theory of evolution...
which was dependent on natural selection.
In the course of the controversy which raged...
Darwin was dubbed the most dangerous man in England.
A more unlikely recipient of such a title cannot be imagined.
What Darwin had not anticipated...
was 'The Origin of Species' commercial success.
It was to run into many editions and be translated into several languages.
It has remained in print ever since.
One reason for the book's popularity was its style.
Darwin presented his findings and theories in a form...
which was both interesting and accessible.
'The Origin of Species' was not the province of a scientific elite.
It appealed to an increasingly literate public.
The book became the focus of attention for the scientific world...
the Church and society as a whole.
One of the most public manifestations of the dispute...
between the supporters of the book and its opponents...
took place in June 1860.
There was a meeting of the British Association...
for the Advancement of Science in Oxford...
and there was an enormous row there.
Huxley was really quite seriously abused...
by Bishop Wilberforce. The reason was...
a number of theologians...
thought that this was against the doctrine of creation.
Although the argument had raged between representatives...
of science and religion, opinion was not clearly divided along those lines.
Antagonism to Darwin came from scientists as well as clergymen.
Many scientists, while accepting the idea of evolution...
were unwilling to set aside God...
and attempted to combine evolutionary principles with a creationist stance.
For the Church, the emergence of Darwin's theory of natural selection...
was a threat to the biblical story of creation...
on which its teachings were based.
The accumulation of scientific evidence presented the Church with a dilemma.
In 1996, more than a hundred years after the publication of'The Origin'...
the Roman Catholic Church confirmed its belief in the validity of evolution.
But it was stressed that this validation did not extend to any aspect...
which undermined the belief that the human soul was a gift from God.
The great difficulty perceived in Darwin's theories...
for the doctrines of the church was how to reconcile...
evolution with the idea that God implants a soul in each human being.
Now, if you think of God implanting a soul...
in the way that one sees on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...
God pointing with his finger into Adam...
and implanting a soul individually into Adam...
then it doesn't work at all. Then evolution and theology...
come into a clash which cannot be resolved.
But, in fact, the individual soul...
means that God has a care of each individual life.
But that doesn't need to be implanted by the very hand of God.
If evolution is the case...
then God sees the body as ready for the soul...
and has that individual care of the individual life.
And that, I think, is what is meant by the doctrine of individual creation.
In the 19th century, Darwin came as a great shock to the Church.
Most Church people then still believed literally in the Book of Genesis.
Nowadays of course, no respectable theologian does any more.
So, it's not a problem. Darwinism is no longer a problem for...
churches such as the Church of England or the Church of Rome.
In the United States of America there's a rather different story.
Even today, there are very influential religious influences...
which take the Book of Genesis literally.
And that's an entirely different story. But in Britain...
there's no problem as far as the science is concerned. Evolution's won.
Creationists have raised the issue of how Darwinism impacted on society.
They point to the distortion of moral values which has resulted...
from an ideology based on 'the survival of the fittest'.
This phrase first coined by the Victoria social philosopher, Herbert Spencer...
to describe natural selection...
has become inextricably linked with Social Darwinism.
The original Darwinian idea of natural selection was strictly within biology...
and it turned into selection of genes in gene pools...
but it's obviously a very seductive idea and the temptation has always been...
to apply Darwinian ideas more widely than that.
And towards the end of the last century there was a move, Social Darwinism...
where particularly successful industrialists used to invoke...
'the survival of the fittest' tojustify...
their own ruthless behavior in the marketplace.
At the other end of the political spectrum...
Karl Marx linked evolutionary struggles for existence with the class struggle.
The signed copy of'Das Kapital' which Marx sent to Darwin remains unread.
The ideology of 'the survival of the fittest'...
was eventually perverted tojustify mass murder in Nazi Germany.
Darwin, who was a liberal-minded and kind man, would have been appalled.
When, as a 22-year-old, he embarked on HMS Beagle...
he knew that this was thejourney of a lifetime.
He could not have anticipated the wide-ranging impact of his findings.
After the publication of'The Origin of Species'...
Darwin spent the rest of his life in varied scientific research.
In 1871, he expanded on his evolutionary theories...
openly addressing the issue of man's origins in 'The Descent of Man'.
By now, evolutionary theories were accepted...
and, despite the link made between man and higher primates...
the book did not arouse a major storm.
An indication of Darwin's continuing diversity...
was the publication in 1881, the year before his death...
of a study on earthworms.
At the time of his death, Darwin's theory of natural selection...
was undergoing a period of decline.
Other scientists attacked Darwin's failure to exactly identify...
the mechanism which powered natural selection.
The revival of his theory in modern times...
owes much to the rediscovery of the genetic work...
done in the 19th century by Gregor Mendel.
Modern theory has unlocked many of the secrets Darwin could only guess at.
Neo-Darwinism is the name that is now given...
to the marriage between Darwinism and Mendelism...
and the importing of particulate inheritance into Darwinism.
Particulate inheritance means that...
heredity comes in discrete particles. You either get a particular unit...
nowadays we call them genes, from say your father or you don't.
You don't get half a gene, or a quarter of a gene.
It's either there or not. It goes through to the next generation...
it goes through to the great grandchild generation or it doesn't.
So, there's no blending. There's no tendency...
for genes to dissolve into each other or dilute each others' effect.
They're either there or they aren't there.
That's Mendelism and when you add Mendelism to Darwinism...
and you get Neo-Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism really works.
Recent advances in genetic engineering...
have brought mankind to the brink...
of what is arguably its most controversial experiment:
the cloning of human beings.
The act of creation, of bestowing life itself...
has become a product of genetic science.
It is now possible to bypass the long process of evolution...
in order to create new species without reference to nature.
There are many areas in which...
this sort of consequence of Darwin's early work...
can be used for the alleviation of suffering...
and anything that can be used for the alleviation of suffering...
is to be welcomed in any Christian ethic.
The other side of this is when...
one can use this knowledge for what is known as cloning.
Once we're into that area then we're into something very dangerous...
and to be avoided.
Cloning of mammals is something radically new.
If humans are cloned then it will be something new.
As to whether it's a bad thing or not, I take a rather liberal line.
It seems to me that if something is going to be forbidden...
there's got to be a good reason for forbidding it if people want to do it.
So, people who want to forbid it have got to demonstrate...
that it will do harm to some identifiable individuals...
and you must be able to say who is going to be harmed and in what way.
I think cloning brings with it many very difficult moral problems.
I think if a child is produced by cloning...
the emotional and physical problems would be enormous...
and I see that as the major difficulty about cloning human beings.
We are playing with things which we don't understand yet.
Charles Darwin died on April 19, 1882.
Ironically, this most private of men, who had described himself...
as an agnostic, was buried at Westminster Abbey.
What happened was that a group of his scientific friends...
suddenly saw an opportunity to have science honored by the nation...
and grouped together and approached...
I think, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey...
and persuaded them that he should be buried in the Abbey.
But Mrs. Darwin stayed away...
and was eventually buried in the churchyard at Down.
The press coverage of his death...
is indicative of his status as an international figure.
The Times eulogized him, acknowledging his contribution to science.
The German newspaper, Almein Zeitung, went further...
describing the 19th century as 'Darwin's century'.