Dr. Anelli – Anu Timple

I enjoyed how the lecture was set up to show the scientists that came before Darwin and how they had influenced him and the advance of science. When Hutton had realized that the Earth was much older than what the bible depicted, he had struggled and then failed to publish his findings for the public to see from a fear of persecution. This was interesting to see how the same situation had almost repeated itself, especially as depicted in the movie Creation. Creation had delved into the more emotional aspects of Darwin’s theories, more specifically the fear of isolation from society. In the time period where religion had played such a major role in society, it was understandably fear inducing to try to go against such a status quo. As shown in the movie, Darwin had struggled with the idea of publishing his results. It impacted him so much that he was failing to sleep and was having nightmares. Yet, the difference was that in the end he had found the courage to make peace with the decision of publishing his book as oppose to Hutton.  It was also fascinating to learn more about Darwin’s upbringing, as through the lecture I had learned how Darwin came from a rich family and had grown up strongly influenced by religion. Having to go against such fundamental values is quite a stressful undertaking psychologically and providers a better perspective to the effort it took to reveal such a polarizing discovery. Additionally because he had money, Darwin was able to further his education and get the opportunity to study science in his life. Without having the bravery to publish his results, the theory of evolution would have perhaps taken additional decades for a person to be in the right situation to create the theory and present it to the world.