With the reissue of this well-known book, John Greene, in a new Preface, puts into present-day perspectives the concepts of evolution and static creationism. Writing as a historian, not as a biologist, theologian, or philosopher, John Greene describes analytically and synthetically the tremendous revolution in human thought that took place in the two centuries separating Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Greene connects the progress in biology with similar progress in astronomy, geology, paleontology, and anthropology and demonstrates the impact of the newly born mechanical view of nature on these sciences. Professor Greene discusses Darwin's own ideas on science, religion, race, progress, economic competition, etc., in an analysis notable for originality and depth and breadth of approach. The analysis reveals the spiritual anxiety caused by the gradual crumbling of static creationism and describes the rise of a gospel of secular progress as a substitute faith for humans to live by.