ng status quo. The mood of the time is illustrated by August Weismann who states: "Darwin's book fell like a bolt from the blue; it was eagerly devoured, and while it excited in the minds of the younger students delight and enthusiasm, it aroused among the older naturalists anything from cool aversion to violent opposition". The young saw in Darwin an opportunity for a new and freer philosophical universe. For instance, young biologists such as Karl Pearson, referring to the beginning of time, were rejoiced when "that wretched date BC 4004, was replaced by a long vista of millions of years of development". However, the older more professional scientists, objected to Darwin's ideas on religious grounds. Before Darwin published the Origin, science and religion existed in harmony. There was an understanding on the part of religion that evolution was discredited by science. Now that men of science were finally favorites of the church (just two centuries ago scientists such as Galileo were unfavorably perceived by the church), it seemed foolish to give up this hard won peace for just another evolutionary hypothesis.Although Darwin discussed sexual selection in the Origin, the majority of the book (and hence the primary importance) was devoted to natural selection. However, sexual selection played a far more important role in Darwin's The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (henceforth referred to as the Descent), which was published on February 24, 1871. In the Descent, sexual selection assumed an equal if not greater than role for the origin of species. For Darwin, sexual selection was not simply a subcategory of natural selection, but rather an alternative or complementary mechanism of evolution. In addition, sexual selection, to a larger extent than natural selection, shifts the focus of attention to one of the most significant and least appreciated aspects of Darwin's theory: "the location of the struggle for existence lies ...
