Darwinisms

What is Darwinism? The name is often used, not for a scientific theory or group of theories, but for a whole outlook, a system of thought with practical and emotional applications, an ideology. It is seen as a creed, to be attacked or defended, protected or betrayed. What this creed involves varies a lot on different occasions, and can range a long way from Darwin. We need to be much clearer about it. If we do believe – as a fact – the historical story that all existing living species have evolved, over a long time, by natural selection, what does that commit us to? Are there outside commitments, or might it just be an inert fact like many others in science, with no more implications for the rest of life than the periodic number of carbon?

The answer to this will naturally depend, not just on Darwin's actual theory or theories, but on what other things we happen to accept already, and what alternatives to them we see as possible. In detail, the problem has changed repeatedly, because the background and the available alternatives are always changing. But right from the start, people have tended to polarize strongly about it because they have thought that crucial issues were involved. There has therefore been a constant temptation to simplify the issues into a struggle of black against white. This has not been only because of religious considerations. As historians have now made very clear, the notion of a simple war between Darwinism and Christianity is quite misleading.