In the 19th. century, the church was Charles Darwin's chief opponent. Many people were shocked at the idea that human beings are descended from - in fact, are - animals, and expressed their disbelief in terms of their belief.

During the 20th. century, the political left emerged as another opponent of Darwin's theory of evolution. While accepting that evolution applied to animals and plants, people influenced by left wing ideas balked at the notion that much of what is human can be explained in this way. The words 'reductionist' and 'determinist', and in some cases, buckets of water, were thrown at men trying to apply evolution to human society. The more extreme opponents of human evolution said that everything is 'socially constructed', including heterosexuality. Their aims were in some ways laudable - for example, they wanted to prevent biology being used to justify marginalizing gays and lesbians. However, some of them were so driven by these good intentions they resorted to dishonest methods against scientists trying to integrate the social and physical sciences.

A new movie about Darwin, 'Creation', cannot find a US distributer. The influential Christian site http://www.movieguide.org describes Darwin as 'a racist, a bigot and 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder'. Godbotherers borrow lefty language to slander science.