One of the most influential and controversial books of all time, Charles Darwin's The Origin Of The Species changed the way scientists and ordinary people look at the world. Charles Darwin was a naturalist and a geolgist, and what he saw on a 1831 expedition to Tierra del Fuego was the catalyst for what would eventually become his theory of natural selection, published in 1859. Without setting out to be controversial, Darwin with the publication of The Origin Of The Species ignited a firestorm of controversy that persists today, as religion and science struggle to come to terms with this landmark work.