Samuel Wilberforce, born in London in 1805 was the third son William Wilberforce, the famous politician. Born in a religious family more emphasis was paid on Samuel’s spiritual and moral welfare. He never went to school and was taught by clerical teachers. He graduated from the Oxford University in 1826 and was ordained as an Anglican priest. He distinguished himself as an enthusiastic and capable clergyman. He was very active in promoting the church by introducing the Sunday schools and extra services. He was a prolific writer and wrote short stories and sermons, all with a moral message. He was known as “soapy sam”, the nickname is derived from a comment by Benjamin Disraeli that the behavior of the bishop was “unctuous, oleaginous, and saponaceous”. But despite his reputation for soapiness, Wilberforce’s talents accounted support for him. In 1845 he was appointed Bishop of Oxford. Wilberforce was a more accomplished speaker. There were only a few who were better than him in this trade. With his charm, attractive personality and great oratorical powers, he became one of the leading speakers of his time. He is even better known for his debate with Huxley on difference in opinion with respect to the Darwin’s theory of “On the origin of species”.
The theory proposed by Darwin aroused great agitations from the church as the idea of transmutation was against the religious orthodoxy and a threat to the social order. This was against the religious view that men were created by God rather a transmutation from other species. Wilberforce was Bishop of Oxford at that time. He was firmly against the view that humans originate from the other species. His supported his view by both religious and scientific facts. He was very logical in his facts that the Darwin’s theory was hypothetical and most of the famous names in science opposed the theory thus the theory was not considered. He also raised the facts that no new species has been found till date which has evolved from the previous one. He also supported that selective pressures could affect in changing the body type but could not give rise to a new species. The implications of Darwin’s theory were against the knowledge available at that time hence Wilberforce’s facts were very right. Even Darwin in his reply to Wilberforce said that Wilberforce arguments were reasonable and fair. He said that it was quite clever of Wilberforce to point out the difficulties of his topic. This represents the great oratorical power of Wilberforce. Thus Wilberforce was very fair with his arguments as scientific facts were clear and the religious facts were right as he was Bishop of Oxford and grew up in a spiritual environment and the Darwin’s theory were opposing them so he was well right to oppose them. Thus his implications of Darwin’s were fair and justified.