Darwin's dangerous idea. Part 1, Body and soul.

The first in a very informative three-part series in which Andrew Marr looks in depth at all aspects of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. This part traces the beginnings of Darwin's discovery including his encounters with Fuegians and first inklings towards the idea of common ancestry. Influences on Darwin such as Thomas Malthus' research on human population, are covered. We hear too about the influence of Darwin's theory on thinkers such as Nietzsche who declared 'God is dead.' Acts of immorality and atrocity could be put down to Darwinian motivation; Vernon Kellogg wrote on this in relation to the behaviour of German soldiers during the 1914 war. There was a backlash against Darwin's theory; William Jennings Bryan, for instance, produced The Butler Act which outlawed evolutionary theory from schools in Tennessee. Freud applied Darwinism to his theory of the unconscious and Jack Haldane began to outline a theory of genetics. Bill Hamilton and George Price searched for a genetic basis for good and evil; what they discovered however led to Price comitting suicide.