Darwin's publisher was urged not to publish evolution work

[snopes]

Charles Darwin's publisher was urged by an adviser not to publish the scientist's historic work "On the Origin of Species."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070425...t_070425031604

[bjohn13]

As history has shown, however, Murray ignored Elwin's advice and went on to publish Darwin's work.

And 150 years later, it is still one of the most controversial topics in America.

[JoeBentley]

Originally Posted by bjohn13

And 150 years later, it is still one of the most controversial topics in America.

Yes and we should all hang our head in shame over that fact.

[Silas Sparkhammer]

The scientific establishment tried to pressure Velikovsky's publisher not to release his books, too: the end result was a massive wave of popularity for "Worlds in Collision" et al.

Sooner or later, someone would have published The Theory. The harder the Church (and others) sought to suppress it, the greater the public interest would be.

Want to persuade people to do something? Forbid 'em to do it.

Silas

[geminilee]

Originally Posted by Silas Sparkhammer

Sooner or later, someone would have published The Theory.

Yeah, like this guy

[JoeBentley]

The and Darwin didn't exactly completely create the Theory of Evolution out of thin air.

Aristotle theorized a concept called "The Great Chain of Being" in the 300 BCs.

Many Greek Hellenist hit upon the basic concept of evolution, including Anaximander, Empedocles, Democritus and Epicurus.

In the Islamic world at least two scholars, Al-Jahiz and Ibn al-Haitham hit upon the basic concept of evolution

In the 17th century Sir Matthew Hale also proposed the same basic idea.

What made Darwin's theory so revolutionary wasn't evolution, which was an old concept, but Natural Selection, which gave us the first working theory of how evolution works.

[Broken Sword]

Originally Posted by JoeBentley

Yes and we should all hang our head in shame over that fact.

I agree, but probably attribute different causes to the problem than you (see the Soapbox Derby Darwinism thread).