The Victorian age, named after the queen who reigned for most of the century, was characterized by incredible scientific advances. Charles Darwin, for example, published his treatise On the Origin of Species, which advanced his radical theories of evolution and survival and shook the pillars of traditional Christian belief in the superiority of mankind over the beasts of the earth. Darwin's theories of natural selection and survival of the fittest conflicted with the Creation story told in the Bible. Furthermore, scientists now had proof that the Earth was much older than had ever been imagined before, making the history of humanity seem like the blink of an eye of the universe. The Victorian population could no longer blindly accept that the world was created in six days after geologists had demonstrated that the world had evolved into its current form over millions of years. Furthermore, a theory called “Higher Criticism” developed which read the Bible not as the infallible word of God, but as a historical text. Faced with these incredible and disturbing discoveries and theories, the faith of many Victorian Christians was profoundly shaken. The Victorian masses no longer had a foundation of tradition and biblical scripture to stand on; it had been torn to pieces by fossilized rocks and the skulls of ape-like men. The poet laureate of the time, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the voice of the Victorian people, expresses his horror and bewilderment at the implications of these scientific discoveries in “In Memoriam AHH.” In sections 54, 55, and 56 of this long poem, Tennyson finds his faith in God weakened and his faith wavering in the face of scientific facts. Faced with evolution, geology and natural selection, ... half of the document ... ...production of evidence, he cannot deny. He is hurt by God's apparent betrayal of humanity and desperately searches for an answer, but there is none forthcoming. It took years for the wounds inflicted by science on the faithful to heal. Some Victorians chose agnosticism as the new philosophy of God; if someone could prove His Existence to them, then they would believe. Others chose to become atheists. Atheism stated that there is no God, there is no afterlife, and there is no divine creator. Although neither of these theologies were very popular during the Victorian period, they continued to exist. Citizens like Tennyson who attempted to reconcile their old faith with new knowledge had to find a way to blend the two together, to demonstrate that it was possible for God to work through Nature to achieve His ends. They had to collect the dust of the Earth, and with it shape a Sky.