Darwin was not a brilliant genius in the mold of Einstein or Newton. He was a very careful observer, and one of the most patient and persistent thinkers in history. He mused over his main ideas for several decades before explaining them in the most careful and convincing way that very rapidly made sense to the biologists who were in the field observing nature.

Darwin and the church?

Darwin as a racist?

During his 5 year voyage on the Beagle Darwin spent some considerable periods of time on shore while the ship was carrying out its naval duties. In South America in 1831 he watch Gauchos deliberately carrying out a genocide against the local natives. The gauchos killed all the men and all the women older than about 20. When Darwin tried to intervene, the gauchos said, "what can we do, they breed so!" Darwin concluded that "When civilized nations come into contact with barbarians the struggle is short, except where a deadly climate gives its aid to the native race." (In West Africa the diseases were so prevalent that the death rate for English soldiers there was 50% per year from 1817 to 1836.)