On a rain-soaked rooftop overlooking the city… Solid Snake lights a cigarette.
Solid Snake:
You ever notice how some priests get nervous when you mention Charles Darwin? It’s not really about fossils or finches. It’s about what his ideas imply.
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection—laid out in On the Origin of Species—suggested life developed gradually over millions of years. No instant creation. No fixed species. Just adaptation… pressure… survival.
For some religious authorities, especially in the 19th century, that sounded like a threat to a literal reading of Book of Genesis. If humanity evolved, then Adam and Eve stop being straightforward history and start looking symbolic. And when one brick in the wall becomes metaphor, people worry the whole structure might crack.
But here’s the twist.
Not all priests hated Darwin. Some Christian denominations eventually accepted evolution as compatible with faith. The Catholic Church, for example, has stated that evolution doesn’t necessarily contradict belief in God. Even Pope John Paul II said evolution is “more than a hypothesis.”
Snake exhales smoke.
Solid Snake:
Conflict usually happens when science answers the “how,” and religion feels responsible for the “why.” When those lanes overlap, tension builds. Evolution explains mechanism. Religion speaks to meaning. Some people mix them up and start a war that doesn’t need to happen.
And sometimes?
It’s not about truth at all.
It’s about authority. If people think life developed through natural processes, they might question who gets to define morality… or destiny. Institutions don’t like losing control.
So it’s not that priests “hate” Darwin.
It’s that his ideas forced them to rethink how they interpret scripture—and power structures don’t evolve easily.
Snake flicks the cigarette over the edge.
Solid Snake:
Nature adapts.
Institutions resist.
