I recently found out that one of the reasons it took Darwinism so long to emerge given animal husbandry was that many people had a similar idea, but the universe was considered to be too young for it to lead to anything but minor variation. It was shortly after cosmological times were pushed way way back that the idea took on more steam.
One point that Palmer makes in the book is that being an atheist during the renaissance was akin of being a conspiracy theorist today. Religion had moderately good explanations for things. Why are animals adapted to their way of living? Because God made them so. Atheism, on the other hand, had no good explanations.
I recently found out that one of the reasons it took Darwinism so long to emerge given animal husbandry was that many people had a similar idea, but the universe was considered to be too young for it to lead to anything but minor variation. It was shortly after cosmological times were pushed way way back that the idea took on more steam.
One point that Palmer makes in the book is that being an atheist during the renaissance was akin of being a conspiracy theorist today. Religion had moderately good explanations for things. Why are animals adapted to their way of living? Because God made them so. Atheism, on the other hand, had no good explanations.
But also check out this book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cheese_and_the_Worms