(R)evolution.

Today, the 30th of June, 166 years ago, a debate took place. At Oxford University, the subject was Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution.

Seven months earlier, he had thrown his book *On the Origin of Species* into the world.

Oddly enough, the people of that time found the notion that Homo sapiens might have any kinship with apes to be, firstly, an imposition, and secondly, lived blasphemy.

That evening, the debaters faced one another. The biologist Richard Owen and the bishop Samuel Wilberforce stood against the theory of evolution — loudly, confidently, combatively. On the evolution-friendly side stood the mathematician and priest Baden Powell, and the scientists Joseph Dalton Hooker and Thomas Henry Huxley. Huxley was one of the most ardent champions of the theory and was therefore called “Darwin’s Bulldog.”

The hall was overcrowded. The hall was overcrowded, the air charged.

The bishop has been speaking for twenty minutes. Somewhere in the hall, Lady Brewster slips from her chair. Fainted. Whether from outrage or exhaustion — only the fall has been recorded. Wilberforce asks Huxley whether the ape sits on his mother’s or his father’s side. Laughter. The bishop knows how to land a punchline. Huxley’s reply: he was not ashamed to have an ape as an ancestor, but he would be ashamed of a man who used his talents to obscure the truth.

Darwin, the quiet observer, had hit the mark — for his initially theoretical reflections have been confirmed again and again. What began as a theory has lodged itself in the bones of science.

Darwin was very brave to present his theories to the public in book form. The Church was powerful, and its representatives called Darwin’s book a pamphlet against the word of God. Time has blunted the sharpest blades. Even the Pope is broadly in agreement with Darwin’s theory of evolution. That, however, does not suit the so-called creationists. They are convinced that the Earth was made — that is to say, created — on the 23rd of October, 4004 BC, yes, before the birth of Christ. And by an almighty God or Creator, at that.

This creed of creationism has led, in the state of Ohio, USA, to a creationist museum. There, among other things, some 70 models of dinosaurs are said to be on display, with the note that God shaped the dinosaurs, like all other animals, on the sixth day of Creation.

And then we have the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin. A quiet observer who laid out connections plausibly in sketches and words. Whom to trust? The stories one must believe — or the conclusions that arise from looking?

Observing and concluding: science.

Believing and following: religion.

*”Here I stand, poor fool that I am...”* — Faust, not Darwin. But perhaps Darwin might have arrived at that line too.

_{George Richmond - From Origins, Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin}