Darwin in the press : What the Spanish dailies said about the 200 th anniversary of Charles Darwin ’ s birth

The publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859 was a turning point in history. According to the biologist and science historian Michael Ghiselin [4], Darwin’s theory represents the most important revolution since Copernicus. Just as Copernicus and Galileo toppled the geocentric world forever, so Darwin sank the rational underpinnings of any kind of anthropocentrism. After Darwin, it became very hard to claim to “Being chosen by Creation”, just as after Copernicus our planet was no longer the center of the universe. Stated very simply, dissemination of the idea of natural selection began to dismantle the “old argument for design in nature” advocated, for example, by Reverend William Paley, and led many to question their previously unassailable belief in the Bible [11]. The serious and seemingly insurmountable conflict that followed, between science and religion, has continued in differed forms into the present [1,8]. In this article, we examine to what extent and in what form this controversy persists in Spanish society, focusing on the print media’s response to the celebration, in 2009, of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. To do so, we have analyzed how the Darwin Year, specifically, during the week of his birthday, February 12th, was presented in the general Spanish press, paying particular attention to its portrayal of the conflict between the theory of evolution and religious beliefs. In addition, we look briefly at the views expressed by several newspaper columnists with respect to their newspaper’s editorial line [3,9]. In Spain, the roots of the “science versus creationism” debate can be traced back to the mid-19th century, when the cultural magazine La Abeja popularized evolutionary theory [7]. At the same time, however, El Museo Universal ridiculed Darwin’s ideas, publishing numerous derogatory articles and satirical caricatures of the English naturalist. The most virulent outbreak of the controversy came with the arrival of the Glorious Revolution of 1868, when the new ideas about evolution began to circulate freely and were supported by many scientists publicly. The debate even sparked the interest of the commercial sector, which tried to take advantage of it to attract greater public interest in their products and to increase advertising revenues: the best example is perhaps that of Anís del Mono. This brand of liquor became a huge success by using a label with a caricature of an ape-man who, according to some authors, might even have represented Darwin himself [6]. The controversy sparked by the dissemination of Darwin’s work was unstoppable, despite government action [5,10], as evidenced by the nature of the coverage of Darwin’s theory in publications such as La IlusCorrespondence: Martí Domínguez, Revista Mètode, Jardí Botànic de la Universitat de València, C/ Quart 80, 46008 Valencia, Spain. Tel. +34-963156828. Fax +34-963156826. E-mail: [email protected] Resum. El bicentenari del naixement de Charles Darwin, celebrat durant el passat any 2009, va provocar un considerable augment de l’interés informatiu de la figura del naturalista anglès. En aquest article s’analitza la cobertura informativa d’aquest aniversari en onze diaris generalistes espanyols, i s’estableix grosso modo quines són les principals postures de la premsa espanyola davant de la teoria de l’evolució. D’aquesta anàlisi, queda ben palès com el creacionisme és encara molt viu en els mitjans espanyols més conservadors.