Overall I found both the movie Creation and Dr. Anelli’s presentation to be very interesting as the history behind Charles Darwin and the development of his theory was never something that I had previously taken time to consider or learn about. I have always had this unsupported idea of Darwin to be a very radical and brave man that created a theory against what was most commonly accepted at that time and did this with out any refrain. After watching the film and presentation it became very apparent that although his theory of evolution and variation was indeed very radical at this time when everything was explained through theology, Darwin himself was not as rebellious of a person that I had thought. Darwin was had so many reservations to releasing his work that he sat with it for nearly twenty years in fear of what might happen to him, his family, and his relationships when he published his findings.
It was interesting to learn about the people, such as Cuvier, Lyell, Paley and many others, that inspired Darwin and started the path which would eventually lead to these revolutionary ideas. When Darwin started looking into the all of the geological findings that were showing species have not always been in the exact way that they appeared at that moment he was able to use that and his findings from his five year voyage to accept the unheard belief of variation and that the world is much older than what theology had been teaching. Although his work proved not to be perfect what Darwin did was truly ground breaking in not only developing a theory that this this day is accepted but also changed the way in which scientist develop and study their own theories.
I agree with you, Adrian, that Darwin is presented in the film (and by Dr. Anelli) as both a brave radical and a scared traditionalist. It makes one wonder just how big a role his friends played in getting him to publish his book. Certainly, Wallace’s revelation made it do or die, but having a supportive family and community were also important.