How did the Victorian Age view Charles Darwin's theory?

Answer 1

The Victorian Age pretty much Didn't view Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution. He kept it a secret most of his life, because he Knew what effect it would have. Darwin, like most people of his time, believed in the standard religious statement that God created the Universe and made each species of animal separate and independent. Man was the pinacle of Creation, created in God's image. When he first began to realize what he was seeing, Darwin was shocked and confused. As the full implication of his discoveries dawned on him, Darwin realized that this information completely contradicted Church dogma. God could Not have personally created each separate species of animal, if the species was the result of choices and adaptations made by its forerunners. The contradiction was especially impossible with Man. If, instead of being personally created by God, in His image, he/she was Actually the product of millions of years of a process that not only produced him/her, but Also produced all the Other Great Apes, that meant that Man was Not special; Not unique, but simply another species in a long chain, on the way to something Else. Social change, however, and the work of other scientists made it safer for Darwin to make his Theory public as the Victorian Age went on. The book "On The Origin Of Species" was finally published in 1859, when he was 51 years old. Although some religious leaders condemned the work, some others championed it. Liberal churches welcomed the Theory as the explanation of God's mechanism in the creation of the Universe. The respect which such scientific luminaries as Thomas Huxley and Joseph Hooker commanded in their advocacy for the Theory managed to make it more a matter of Scientific debate than Religious dogma.

Answer 2

Many people who lived during Victorian times were shocked and did not want to believe it because of their religious views.