sympathy or any type of sorrow for having Darwin base his reasoning of spontaneous generation upon the use of
creation. In other words, Owen is trying to state that it is hypocritical for Darwin to suddenly use the Biblical
support and evidence to back his point, when all along, Darwin based his theory of evolution upon the primary
and secondary laws. Even the Bible states that such judgement would be inappropriate (As in Matthew 5:19, ‘So
whoever disobeys even the least important of the commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be
least in the Kingdom of heaven ‘). Even though this issue relates to the fact that neither Darwin nor Owen have a
satisfactory answer to, Owen still has the urge to wanting to look better than Darwin, or as Neal Gillespie puts it –
‘a chance to out-naturalize Darwin’ (Rupke 240).
In the conflict of between Darwin and Owen, it seems clear that Darwin had the better of it. Owen was
a naturalist that came and went. Darwin in the other hand, established his name, even till this day, his theories
still stand true and are currently been used. Had Owen not got into this mess with Darwin, Owen’s name would
still be remembered by most. The foundations of Owen’s views were relatively similar to that of Darwin, and had
he been a supporter of Darwin, his once-high reputation would still hold today.
In conclusion, two brief quotes from Darwin’s letters could be seen :
“Owen says my book will be forgotten in ten years, perhaps so; but, with such a [short but prestigious] list [of
scientific supporters], I feel convinced that the subject will not.” (Darwin in a letter to J. D. Hooker, 3/3/1860)
“I have read lately so many hostile views [of The Origin of Species], that I was beginning to think that perhaps I
was wholly in the wrong, and that Owen was right when he said the whole subject would be forgotten in ten
years; but now that I hear that you and Huxley will fight publicly (which I am sure I never could do), I fully believe
that our cause will, in the long run, prevail.” (Darwin in a letter to J. D. Hooker, 7/2/1860)
It seems certainly true that Darwin’s prediction of “the subject (of evolution) would not be forgotten,” and that,
“our cause will, in the long run, prevail,” proved true. Whereas, Richard Owen’s prediction that the “whole
subject” would be “forgotten in ten years” proved false. If we were to put Darwin and Owen under Biblical
standards, and refer to prophets as a person of foretelling future events, Owen could be recognized as a false
prophet and Darwin, indeed a true prophet.