Why was Darwin hesitant to publish his work (evolution)?

Question

On the Origin of Species to be specific, Yes I know, easy answers, but I would like thorough answers

thanks, sources welcomed

Answer 1

cuzz well... he wants to prove that he's right? idk

Answer 2

The second answer is what i would say as well i think he is right.

Answer 3

He knew that the fossil record was letting him down so he waited and waited but nothing turned up and so he published hoping that in the future the fossil record would prove him correct. Alas! to this day there has been nothing to report on his behalf.

PS.  By all means give me a thumbs down, but prove me wrong first.

Answer 4

Was he in a rush? I think he accepts what he saw and was content with his findings.

Answer 5

He was very aware of how controversial it would be.  No, he didn't have to worry about being prosecuted or persecuted for heresy at that time in England, but he knew there would be a huge firestorm of controversy.

He knew he had a great new original idea of great explanatory power.  He also knew he would have to develop it carefully, and collect an unassailable amount of evidence and examples.  He didn't want it to come out half-baked.  ("Extraordinary ideas demand extaordinary proof" was as true back then as now.) He was an extraordinary scientist, able to work on the most meticulous details and on the biggest ideas and concepts.

His ideas of how he liked to do science led him to prefer to take a long time, BUT the controversy thing was a big factor, also.  He was a quiet, retiring man, and dreaded the storm that would break when he published.  This accounted for the last five or so years of delay.

He knew very well that supplying a scientific basis for the existence of  living things (most definitely including man) would be an unprecedented challenge to the exclusive role religion had in being the explanatory power to account for why the world around us was what it was.

This profound shift can not be overstated.  The fight and the tug of war as to who people should turn to for the Big Answers continues today.  Literally today, as the 8/24 edition of the NY Times has a cover story on the teaching of evolution in schools over religious objections.

Answer 6

He wasn't hesitant to publish his work, he was careful to frame it in a way that didn't directly contradict the church. At the time heresy was a pretty big deal.

He realized the church would have no qualms with his claims that animals change over time, but to even suggest that humans had would have been suicide.