The First Rumbles

When On The Origin of Species was first published, science had a bit of a different dynamic with the public.

Unlike today, when science was defined by masses of data and lots of specialization, the public could fairly well learn, understand, and decide upon scientific discoveries on their own. The initial copies of the book that were published ended up circulating around libraries across Europe. Many people could decide for themselves on evolution.

Of course, not everyone supported it.

He was far from universally opposed of course, and a lot of that was owed to the fact that evolution wasn't really a new idea. It was not a completely new and radical theory like, say, relativity. Ideas of heredity had been done before this. Reactions from the church were also mixed. There were of course clergymen who denounced it as anti-religious, but others didn't. One of the key religious ideas during that time in fact was the idea that God built the universe like a clock, building the universe and letting it work on it's own.

In fact, evolution would quickly become accepted after this. Soon ideas like Social Darwinism were emerging, while the ideas started integrating themselves into a general consciousness, as it has persisted today. Darwin's ideas have always won out, even, and especially, after initial introduction.