9. The Anglican Church in England rose in opposition to Darwin
The Anglican Church was a potent political force and the source of most scientific training in Great Britain when On the Origin of Species appeared, and in addition to Wilberforce, its leaders opposed Darwin’s findings. Though not all. Those of the church hierarchy with more liberal leanings supported Darwin’s theories, and presented the idea of natural selection as part of God’s divine plan for His creation. Conservative Anglicans were less receptive. One of the leading supporters of Darwin’s work was a priest of the church and mathematician Baden Powell. Powell (father of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts) called Darwin’s work a “masterly volume”.
Powell argued that creation included natural and physical laws, which could not be violated, and that the violation of which would be miraculous. Hence to Powell, the belief in miraculous intervention was in itself atheistic. Only adherence to faith in natural, physical, and spiritual laws was true belief in God. Darwin’s work, according to Powell, was an expression of natural law in action over thousands of years. Powell was one of seven scholars who contributed to a work supporting the theory of evolution published in the spring of 1860, Essays and Reviews, which supported the work of Darwin and other evolutionists.
