How Darwin Marketed Evolution

Had evolutionary beliefs been marketed
as materialistic philosophy, Darwinism
would have never prospered in the West

 

 

Marketing Evolution

by Jerry Bergman, PhD

A common impression is that, in contrast to mere belief, in science facts rigidly rule. Many also assume that science wins or loses in the marketplace of ideas based on empirical evidence alone.

The phrase “science has proven” convinces most people to accept an idea —a dynamic especially persuasive when coupled with the belief that evolution is rational, untouched by personal bias or performance.

Science has always been marketed, from 18th-century coffeehouse demos of Newton’s ideas to today’s TikTok explainers (The Conversation, 15 December 2025). In this article, marketing scholar Beth Dufault, an expert in economic sociology at the University of Portland, describes the history of scientific marketing. She says,

People often see science as a world apart: cool, rational, and untouched by persuasion or performance. In this view, scientists simply discover truth, and the truth speaks for itself. But history tells a very different story.

Scientific theories do not simply reveal themselves; they compete for attention, credibility, and uptake … science is not outside the market, but inside a public arena where claims vie for audiences, resources, and belief – and where power, persuasion, and social position shape which ideas are heard, trusted, or forgotten.”[1]

At the end of her article, she adds,

Science has never been the pristine, market-free ideal many imagine. It has always lived – sometimes uneasily – within a marketplace of ideas, competing for belief, attention and authority.

How Darwinism Was Marketed

Historian of evolution Edward J. Larson wrote in 2004 that in the 19th century, evolution was accepted remarkably quickly in Western scientific and educated circles.[2] One major reason was the packaging that evolutionists employed. Had evolutionary beliefs been marketed as the materialistic philosophy they essentially were, Darwinism would have never made such headway in the West.

But because evolutionary beliefs were packaged as “science” rather than philosophy (or theology), this conferred two immediate advantages:

First, presenting evolutionary beliefs as science lent it immediate prestige and popular respect in both Europe and America. Second, once this framing was in place, any criticism of evolutionary beliefs could be played off as an “attack on Science” —or worse, as pseudoscience or religion masquerading as science—thus affording it near iron-clad protection from scrutiny.

This meant that the deeper implications of evolution were prevented from becoming widely known. Former U.S. information agency assistant advisor Eugene Windchy wrote about this problem in his 2009 book, The End of Darwinism and How a Flawed and Disastrous Theory Was Stolen and Sold [i.e., marketed].[3]

A few of the examples that Windchy discusses include:

1. Mathematicians who criticized Darwinism claiming it is unsupported by mathematical analysis. For example, in 1966, “a big international conference pitted mathematicians against leading evolutionary biologists” effectively showing it was mathematically impossible.
2. Biologists at times criticized Darwinism but failed to win over academia and the public. Windchy writes,

“A series of famous biologists have appeared to support Darwinism while actually not believing in it…. In 1980, a conference of 160 biologists decided that Darwinian theory was grossly inadequate –but the proceedings were not published.”[4]

Publication of substantive criticism of evolutionary theory is often discouraged or suppressed, and is frequently dismissed as “religiously inspired.”^5,6

Darwin Marketed Evolution as Science

An excellent example of one of evolution’s most active proponents is Charles Darwin himself. In my library is a set of The Encyclopedia Britannica, and nearby is a collection of the 30 thick volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin. The Britannica set is 53 inches tall, while the Darwin correspondence volumes are 58 inches tall. In addition, Charles Darwin authored around 20 major books and numerous scientific papers. By any standard, his scholarly output was remarkable.[5] Charles Darwin, through extensive writing and correspondence with hundreds of colleagues, specialists, and even ordinary individuals, worked tirelessly to persuade others of his views while discussing, testing, and gathering evidence for his evolutionary ideas.

Darwin also regularly met with leading naturalists and scientists, including Joseph Hooker, Charles Lyell, and Thomas Huxley, at his home to engage in extended scientific discussions centering on his ideas about evolution. Many of these visitors enjoyed the comfortable setting and the opportunity to spend relaxed time with Darwin and his family.

One goal/purpose of these meetings was to discuss and solidify his specific theory of evolution by natural selection, and to build a strong circle of influential allies in preparation for its public release. These close interactions helped Darwin to secure early support from key figures, convincing them of his ideas in advance as part of a deliberate effort to promote his worldview.

Darwin Marketing Support

Darwin also had a great deal of support from others in marketing his worldview. One major example is that he was able to publish with one of the most widely known and respected publishers in Europe: John Murray Publishers. Murray is described as a person who had the book business in his blood. His grandfather (also named John Murray) founded the company. Under his son, ”John Murray II, it became one of the most influential publishing houses in the country,” wrote John Falk in the Smithsonian Magazine in 2020.[6] The firm was widely known and respected, having published works by Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, Washington Irving, and Lord Byron.

Publishers like Murray wielded considerable cultural influence as “moral gatekeepers,” determining which ideas were considered “fit” for public consumption. As one account notes, John Murray effectively controlled

“who could rock the boat—and how hard they could rock it. There were certain views that were acceptable in Victorian society and other ideas that weren’t. And part of Murray’s job, as a publisher, was to make judgments about what ideas were acceptable for his audience.”[7]

For this reason his support of Darwin was a crucial element in Darwin’s successful marketing of his ideas.

Darwin’s Persona Also Helped His Marketing

Darwin was also a proven and well-known author with a strong ability to sell books. One factor working in his favor, Falk adds, was that

“Darwin was a university-educated ‘gentleman,’ a quintessential member of England’s upper classes, with a country home and an inheritance from his father. In other words, he represented exactly the sort of author Murray sought to publish.”[8]

Darwin was clearly successful in marketing evolution and promoting his evolutionary ideas:

“the release of On the Origin of Species, the 1859 bestseller that made Darwin a household name and changed the course of scientific history.”[9]

Making Secularism Look Scientific

Darwin’s presentation of the evolution of life without explicit reference to God—describing plants and animals as developing according to natural law and without divine guidance—was a masterstroke of marketing. (A reference to a “Creator” was added only in the second edition to conciliate angry clerics after the godless first edition; see footnote*.)

*The Leo AI engine states, “Darwin did not remove the reference to a Creator in subsequent editions. He added the phrase “by the Creator” in the second edition (1860) and retained it in all later editions, including the sixth and final edition he worked on before his death in 1882. The addition was made to conciliate religious critics, although Darwin later expressed regret for “truckling to public opinion” and clarified in private correspondence that by “creation” he meant an unknown natural process, not a divine act.

Had Darwin openly stated that his evolution theory fully explained the origin of all life by unguided natural processes, thereby undermining what many regard as the primary evidence for the existence of God, such candor would likely have proven disastrous from a marketing perspective. Although this implication was effectively present, stating it explicitly would have been a fatal admission that Darwin deliberately ignored.

The situation is comparable to the tobacco companies in the 1940s attempting to market their products without denying that cigarettes were highly addictive and that long-term use was often lethal. Instead, the companies aggressively marketed their products using implicit health endorsements and claims of superior taste and mildness. As one account notes,

“cigarettes did cause coughing and throat irritation. But companies used this to their advantage to promote their product as better than the competition. It wasn’t all cigarettes that gave you problems—it was just those other ones.”[10]

Summary

A major reason for Darwin’s success was not the strength of the evidence for his worldview, but rather his effectiveness as a marketer and his ability to recruit prominent scientists and powerful publishers to support his work, despite significant problems with his largely plagiarized evolutionary theory.

References

[1] DuFault, Beth, “Science has always been marketed, from 18th-century coffeehouse demos of Newton’s ideas to today’s TikTok explainers,” The Conversation; https://theconversation.com/science-has-always-been-marketed-from-18th-century,-coffeehouse-demos-of-newtons-ideas-to-todays-tiktok-explainers-267707, 15 December 2025

[2] Larson, Edward J., Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory, Modern Library, New York, NY, 2004.

[3] Windchy, Eugene, The End of Darwinism and How a Flawed and Disastrous Theory Was Stolen and Sold, Xlibris Publishing, New York, NY, 2009.

[4] Windchy, 2009. Back Cover.

[5] Shedinger, Robert, Darwin’s Bluff: The Mystery of the Book Darwin Never Finished. Discovery Institute, Seattle, WA, 2024. Darwin’s “bluff” was promising a thorough scientific presentation of his theory of natural selection with evidence that scientists could evaluate, but delivering only what he called an “abstract” of his ideas in The Origin. A cobbled publication of the full presentation never came till long after his audience was dead, and it never delivered the promised evidence anyway. Shedinger quotes extensively from Darwin’s own letters.

[6] Falk, Dan, “Charles Darwin’s Publisher Didn’t Believe in Evolution, but Sold His Revolutionary Book Anyway. The famed naturalist and conservative stalwart John Murray III formed an unlikely alliance in popularizing a radical idea,” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-darwins-publisher-changed-worlddespite-his-own-objections-180974189/, 12 February 2020.

[7] Falk, 2020. For more examples of how the media, universities, libraries and bookstores censor criticisms of evolution, see my book, Censoring the Darwin Skeptics.

[8] Falk, 2020.

[9] Falk, 2020.

[10] Little, Beckey, “When cigarette companies used doctors to push smoking,” https://www.history.com/articles/cigarette-ads-doctors-smoking-endorsement, 13 September 2018 (updated on 27 May 2025).

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Dr. Jerry Bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology for over 40 years at several colleges and universities including Bowling Green State University, Medical College of Ohio where he was a research associate in experimental pathology, and The University of Toledo. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Wayne State University in Detroit, the University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University. He has over 1,900 publications in 14 languages and 40 books and monographs. His books and textbooks that include chapters that he authored are in over 1,800 college libraries in 27 countries. So far over 80,000 copies of the 60 books and monographs that he has authored or co-authored are in print. For more articles by Dr Bergman, see his Author Profile.