Reply #19: The idea of evolution as "progress" is a 19th century rhetorical creation

[Nikki Stone1]

A "marketing gimmick" if you prefer. What Darwin realized is that mutations could be literally anything and those that stuck were those that the environment favored, regardless of value in human terms. There was no better or worse, only change. But "progress" was the ideal of both academics (philosophers and scientists) as well as of Christian ministers who wanted to make humans better. So to get his ideas out there without being completely shut down by the establishment, Darwin's evolution had to be dressed up as progress.