The Orgin of Species Author:Charles Darwin Charles Darwin first challenged Genesis with his argument for the descent of "organic beings" in THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. It is "hat old theory, evolution, as broach'd anew, trebled, with indeed all the devouring claims by Darwin." wrote Walt Whitman of the 1859 first edition. Although a theory of evolutionary biology had been suggested by the Fr... more »ench naturalists, George Louis Buffon, in 1804, and Jean Baptiste Lamarck, in 1809, Darwin's detailed and comprehensive account of "the war of nature" shook the world. It challenged theologian William Paley's century-old "plan of creation" biology and ushered in the struggle to free natural science from religion. Within little more than a decade the new phrases "survival of the fittest" and "natural selection" had spread throughout England, France, and America and were soon translated into Japanese and Hindustani. Darwin's one cautious reference in this book to a link between man and animals further provoked twelve years of private controversy culminating in his presentation to a stunned public of The Descent of Man.« less