3 March 2009 | 09-0176 |

Leanne Larmondin

Original cover of The Origin of Species. Image: wikipedia

Toronto (ENI). The 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth is being marked by hundreds of events around the world, not to mention scores of writers and scientists who are weighing in about his impact on science and religious belief. Sometimes Darwin is used as a luminary of non-believers, but his theories are accepted by many of those who have faith.

And, 150 years after Darwin published his book, "The Origin of Species", creationists and evolutionists continue to debate Darwin's theory of evolution: that living beings are related by common genealogical descent, and plant and animal species adapt according to their environment.

Bitter divisions separate many who espouse Darwin's theory that species, including humans, evolved through natural selection over hundreds of thousands of years, and others who, interpreting the Bible literally, say the world was created in six days by God, who also made man in his own image.

In Rome, on 3 March a five-day Vatican-sponsored academic conference to mark the anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species" opened. Present are scientists, philosophers and theologians who are discussing Darwin's theory of evolution in relation to belief in divine creation.

The conference is organized by Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and it is one of two in 2009 sponsored by the Vatican to examine the work of scientists such as Galileo and Darwin whose ideas seemed to challenge religious beliefs. In presenting the conference, the Vatican said that the Roman Catholic Church, unlike many Protestant churches, never condemned Darwin's theory.

In Britain, commemorative events included a "Darwin Day" party at London's Natural History Museum and free admission to the Bristol zoo to anyone sporting a beard (real or fake), a cheeky reference to Darwin's bushy white whiskers.

The anniversary has been observed with a lecture in Canada by a professor of biochemistry from the University of Toronto. Calling Darwin "the best scientist who ever lived", Professor Larry Moran discussed his impact on science. He noted that Darwin's significance underwent a rehabilitation of sorts in 2002, when Britain's Natural History Museum moved his 2.2-tonne statue from a cafeteria to a place of prominence in the building's central hall.

National Geographic magazine also commented on the anniversary, devoting its February cover to the story, entitled, "What Darwin didn't know". Calling "The Origin of Species", the "most incendiary book in the history of science", the magazine notes that while evolution was widely accepted during Darwin's lifetime, his theory of natural selection did not "triumph" until about 1940, when it was integrated with discoveries about genetics.

Considered a national hero in his native England, Charles Darwin was born on 12 February 1809. He attended a Church of England (Anglican) school in Shrewsbury and studied at Cambridge University for the priesthood. His theology studies fell by the wayside and in 1831 he set off on a five-year expedition on the ship HMS Beagle as an unpaid naturalist. It was on that South American journey that he observed the behaviour of different plant and animal species.

Darwin eventually lost his faith and wrote in the 1830s, "I found it more and more difficult, with free scope given to my imagination, to invent evidence which would suffice to convince me. Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete." Despite his own lack of faith, it is speculated that he suppressed publishing his theories of evolution and natural selection because he feared the reaction of religious leaders and even his own devout wife.

When The Origin of Species was released in 1859, many Europeans still believed that the Earth was created in seven days, as related in the Bible's Book of Genesis.

Although early church response to Darwin's theories was hostile, he was given a state funeral and was buried at London's Westminster Abbey, near the grave of Isaac Newton.

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