Kevin Dixon: Torbay’s victorians on life and the universe

During the nineteenth century Torbay was in the forefront of discoveries and debates about the age of the earth and of the origins of all living things.

At one time, the only real explanations we had were from the Bible. From a reading of scripture, the monk and scholar the Venerable Bede (672-735) suggested that the world was created in 3952BC; Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) proposed 4000BC. Even more precise was Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656) who fixed on a date of October 23rd 4004 BC after calculating the lifespans of Biblical characters.

All life was seen as the creation by God brought into existence at around the same time, a chronology described in the Book of Genesis in the Christian Old Testament.

Although many Christians had long seen the creation story as an allegory, instead of historical fact, God's existence remained undisputed. William Paley's Natural Theology (1802), for example, argued that natural objects were sufficient proof of God’s design.

For that reason, up to the 1860s a harmony existed between science and faith. 

However, evidence was being uncovered, literally on occasion in the Bay, that would change our understanding of everything. There were discoveries in geology, palaeontology, biology, history, and archaeology. By the 1870s 'the sciences' and 'religion' were increasingly seen as separate and distinct.

In 2007 Torbay was selected as one of just 57 areas around the world to be a Geopark. This exceptional status recognises our unique and internationally significant environmental, cultural and historical heritage. Most important of all, it was the Bay’s geology that first challenged the literal meaning of Genesis. Our growing understanding of the millions of years it had taken to form the landscape began a revolution in how we understood the earth.

It was his love of geology that caused Torquay visitor, the polymath and philanthropist John Ruskin (1819-1900) to begin to question the certainties of his faith: “If only the geologists would let me alone, I could do very well, but those dreadful hammers! I hear the clink of them at the end of every cadence of the Bible verses.”

What was being discovered as the geologists dug into the rocks was also causing amazement. A little further along our coast in Dorset, Mary Anning (1799-1847) was roaming the limestone cliffs collecting fossils, amassing evidence that there were bizarre creatures long before humans walked the earth.  

Living in the Bay we had geologist and archaeologist William Pengelly (1812-1894), one of the first to present proof that the old Biblical chronology was incorrect.

Self-taught, William developed a specialist interest in geology and conducted excavations in Kents Cavern. His findings made a major contribution to the development of modern thinking about geology and pre-history. He played a leading role in the formation of the Torquay Natural History Society, and his portrait has pride of place in Torquay Museum.

The most significant scientific thesis, and arguably the greatest idea ever conceived, was that of evolution.

In 1861 scientist and explorer Charles Darwin (1809-1882) lived at Meadfoot House in Hesketh Crescent, now the Osborne Hotel. A few years earlier in 1859 he had published his groundbreaking theories in ‘On the Origin of Species’.

Charles was a naturalist who studied variations in plants, animals and fossils. In his ’Origin’ he described that when an animal adapted successfully to its environment, it thrived. He called this idea natural selection, with different species of animals evolving over many generations.

The submission that all living creatures have evolved from primitive life forms over a period of millions of years seemed to go against the teaching that God created all living things as they still are. Instead, evolution described immense waste, failure and cruelty, with over 99% of all species now extinct. 

Throughout the ‘Origin’ there was no direct statement that humanity descended from any other species. Yet the inference was there. It was only in ‘The Descent of Man’ in 1871 that Charles set out his theory that humans were primates, part of the family of Great Apes.

This challenged the belief that God had created humans in his own image on the sixth day of creation; and questioned whether humans were superior to all other creatures or possessors of an immortal soul.

These accumulating scientific advances made it difficult for many educated people to accept the literal truth of the Bible while, at the same time, there were ongoing studies of the scriptures as historical texts. Some intellectuals and writers even rejected the teachings of Christianity altogether; the first time that a substantial number of public figures openly declared that they held atheistic beliefs.

Mourning the loss of religious certainly, in 1851 the poet Matthew Arnold wrote ‘Dover Beach’:

“The Sea of Faith, Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore, Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear, Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.”

Nevertheless, the majority remained believers in the core Christian message. Among them were the poet and Torquay visitor Alfred Tennyson who continued “believing where we cannot prove”.

Indeed, Charles Darwin himself described himself as an agnostic but not an atheist. He wrote, “I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God…”

Charles had intended his work to be for the consumption of other scientists. He was then surprised that his books became popular with a wide audience, generating discussions, sometimes heated, not just in Victorian parlours but in pubs across the nation.

One who vehemently opposed the idea of evolution was Torquay-resident Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888). A brilliant man, he wrote more than 40 books, invented the first salt-water aquarium and designed the first public aquarium in London in 1858.

As a member of the conservative evangelical Christian denomination, the Plymouth Brethren, Philip is now best known as the author of ‘Omphalos’ in 1857. This book rejected Darwin’s ideas and argued that God had created the Earth exactly as described in the Bible with mountains and canyons and trees already with growth rings.

According to Philip, God had given things the appearance of a history that they had not experienced. Hence, all the geological strata and the fossils were false evidence of a gradual history that the world had never had. Accordingly, he stated that there was no truth in the claim that the earth was of any great age.

Mostly forgotten in his hometown, Philip is nevertheless seen by Biblical literalists in the United States as the father of Creationism; 46% of Americans hold to Biblical inerrancy.

In Britain, despite opposition, these new scientific discoveries were gradually accepted. 

The Church of England’s centuries-old tradition of seeking a ‘via media’, a middle way, allowed the church to accommodate new ideas without abandoning core beliefs.  Anglican rector, novelist and Torquay visitor, Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) wrote to Darwin, “if you be right I must give up much of what I had believed”. He added, however, that the act of creation was “just as noble conception of Deity, to believe that He created primal forms capable of self-development”. 

Darwin’s ideas are now seen as the best explanation for life on earth by over 70% of Britons. The great man is appreciated as having changed how we understand the world. This was recognised when his portrait was featured on the back of the £10 note, and in 2009 the nation’s established church issued a statement, “Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you”.

Nevertheless, around 20% of British citizens identify themselves as creationists.

Torbay was a focus of the discoveries and debates about the age of the earth and of the origins of all living things. Let us not forget our contribution to the search for evidence about Life, the Universe, and Everything.