The Voyage That Shook the World

The film presents itself as a serious examination of Darwin and his theory while in fact it appears to be far from this and appears to have a creationist agenda lurking in the background. I say "lurking in the background" because all too often the film lacks the courage of the evident convictions of its producer and director. It points out a number of errors, or alleged errors, that Darwin made on the Beagle voyage, which is fair enough. No doubt Darwin did make errors. But it then uses them to cast doubt on such issues as the age of the earth, suggesting that it is perhaps only a few thousand years old, rather than millions, as all serious scientists accept. Sir Charles Lyell's argument that geology shows that the earth is millions of years old, has not been seriously doubted since, although it is true that he did not give sufficient prominence to examples of sudden catastrophic changes. But the film tries to argue that this casts doubt on the whole theory, which it does not. There is no shred of evidence that all continents and the fossils in them are to be explained by a sudden world-wide and simultaneous flood which submerged the entire globe. The film does not argue, in any case, that the Grand Canyon was created in a sudden cataclysm. The film however never poses the argument directly, presumably because it is unsustainable. The film also states as criticism some points which are false, e.g. that the sea shells which Darwin found high up on the Andes were not fossilized. They were fossilized, as Darwin himself observed and the samples were returned to England. The film makes some valid points about Galapagos finches, which later research seem to show are not always separate species, in the sense that their beaks change from one form to another, but back again in a number of generations. Speciation is a debate within natural selection, but if one was to take on the whole debate and cast doubt on whether species evolve at all, one would have deal with all the intermediate fossils that have been found since Darwin, e.g. archeopteryx and the many Chinese reptile/bird fossils (some of which, yes, were fakes, but most are not), and the many intermediate species between ape and man, let alone DNA evidence. But the film does not attempt this, being apparently content to cast a little doubt here and there, without drawing any firm conclusion.

A thought provoking and high quality documentary that provides a balanced yet incisive critique of Darwin's work. It does not attack the man but depicts him as a methodical, honest yet flawed naturalist who sometimes drew unwarranted conclusions from his data. The documentary reveals instances where Darwin failed to pursue certain lines of research which if he had done would have revealed a different explanation to the one he gave. It also shows how recent discoveries have provides a powerful challenge to some of Darwin's presuppositions. The documentary contains interviews with modern day intellectuals on both sides of the debate and provides a necessary counterbalance to the 'over-the-top' claims of some militant atheistic-evolutionists today. Highly recommended to all.

The perspective of this film comes from those with a point of view opposite of Darwin. While this may seem to paint him in a completely unfavorable light, it does not discredit the work he put in to form his theories.

The interviews from experts tend to paint Darwin in a more positive light acknowledging how his work has influenced science though they also acknowledge some flaws in his reasoning (as might be the case with any scientist). Ultimately, every scientist is influenced by some kind of preconceived notions. Lyell's influence on Darwin was strongly referenced.

The film as a documentary/history was adequate at best. I felt that hearing from experts was informative and intrigues me to hear more of what they may say within their own context to get a fuller picture (I do believe in being well read and researched). The acting and representation of Darwin's life was rather weak.

I do lean towards creationism and would give this a 7/10, though I understand how someone who might lean towards evolution would strongly give a lower rating.

In this time of uncritical acceptance of anything Darwinian, this movie clearly exposes the man's geological, biological and theological weaknesses, whilst as truly as possible chronicling his life and work. Whilst his actual scientific research and work was meticulous, his conclusions were not - few know how heavily he relied upon other's conclusions. For instance, the incredible importance of lawyer, Lyell's, work on 'Uniformitarianism' which meant Darwin incorrectly and vastly 'over-aged' certain S American river deposits on his Beagle voyage - he had little geological experience himself - as covered in this film. Or his final conclusions on the 'evolution' of the Galalpagos Finches, whose bills are now known to change almost instantly to accommodate seed size, and can all interbreed - thus demonstrating only 'breeding after their -Biblical - Kinds' - built-in variety, and not evolution = no slow, blind, random actions, no new genetics, no new info etc. Although Darwin knew well the strict limits to breeding from both his own life's work and many others, his final conclusion that 'simple' - no such thing, as they all possessed the same incredible complex DNA from the beginning! - cells had somehow turned into people is as tragic as his own life turned out to be. See this film, and Wake-Up! Unlike his mentor's geological ignorance of how rapidly rocks form - 'The Time is Short'...

I didn't get all of the film when I first saw it (maybe I failed the IQ test :) so I watched it again. Each time I watched it my admiration for this film grew. I know the people who made this film and they would have meticulously researched it. They have shown a perspective of Darwin that I don't think has ever been made before. So it's about time we saw something which gives another angle to Darwin which is also true and gives us food for thought. The concept of the film is brilliant - but I don't want to give too much away. It has been made by scientists so expect technical terms. It is so refreshing to have a film which challenges our preconceptions and beliefs instead of toeing the evolutionary party line.