On a new episode of ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid talks with Nancy Pearcey, author of numerous books, including most recently Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality. Their subject is the widespread belief that Darwin’s leading early supporters were convinced of the main pillars of his theory. Download the podcast or listen to it here.

The 19th century was ready to accept a theory of evolution, but not necessarily by natural selection. Some of Darwin’s chief defenders believed in God or a “vital force” guiding evolution. But Darwin would have none of it. And what do evolutionary scientists say today? In private, among themselves? The controversies still are not over.

Photo: Detail of Darwin statue, Natural History Museum, London, by Rept0n1x (Own work) [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.