Thursday marked the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, and later this year will see the 150th anniversary of the publication of “The Origin of Species,” a book that undoubtedly changed the way we see ourselves and where we come from. 

"If he had the opportunity to look back for the past 150 years and see all amazing discoveries in the fossil record, including feathered dinosaurs, walking fish and walking whales, he'd be delighted to see that there is evidence in the historical record of the planet for evolution and the transformation from one organism to another," said Michael Novacek, provost and curator in the Department of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Darwin’s theory encourages us to regard ourselves as being nobler, as being superior. Because he proved, in any way he could and without losing any inner coherence that we are who we are thanks to a necessary but still self indulged chain of effects.

One should never forget the fact that when Darwin penned "Origin" in 1859, there were few fossils available for him to use as evidence, because fossil-hunting was a relatively new field and expeditions to dig for fossils were harder to undertake than they are today when we have Jeeps, satellite phones, and not to forget, electricity.

Moreover the Vatican has changed its stand about the Theory of Evolution advanced by Charles Darwin. Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said Darwin's theory which the Church was against in the past, is compatible with Christianity.

The acknowledgement of Darwin's theory coincides with the holding of a papal-backed conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University to observe the 150th anniversary of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species". Ravasi clarified Darwin's theories were not formally condemned by the Roman Catholic Church whatsoever.