How did Darwin become such a radical

almost akin to being the devil? I know there's a long history against him by fundamentalists, and I've been involved in fundamentalism myself and have heard much of this inane babble over the years. Evolution is an idea that is, in itself, an abomination to most in the right and Darwin, despite the truths about him and the way he conducted his life, is portrayed as a radical that he never was. He didn't fight the vested powers in his day. He wasn't a rabble-rouser. He was a naturalist who devised aspects of a theory based upon meticulous observations over the course of many years. Today's creationists take apart bits and pieces of the evolutionary theory--which itself has evolved--instead of doing the exhaustive study that a true scientific theory merits before it can be accepted. I've had discussions with people about the human and dinosaur footprints found on a river bottom sample. "You see," they say. "This proves that humans and dinosaurs co-existed and that evolution is a crock."
But in today's world, so many ideas and long accepted truths have been turned upside down.