In 1830, Robert FitzRoy captained the Beagle that carried Charles Darwin on his famous voyage. Darwin wrote his account. So did FitzRoy; and in his Narrative, he appended two chapters with some Biblical reflections, including one concerning the descent of man. Both FitzRoy and Darwin travelled the same journey, and saw the same things, but both came to different conclusions.

Said FitzRoy: “The more I have sought, the more evidence has appeared to demonstrate…. the probability, nay certainty, that all men are of one blood. In the course of years spent in various quarters of the world, I have had opportunities of leisurely considering people from all the principal countries. I have read much of what has been written, during late years, on the subject of their resemblance, or difference ; and the conclusion to which I have been obliged to come is — that there is far less difference between most nations, or tribes (selecting any two for the comparison), than exists between two individuals who might be chosen out of either one of those nations or tribes; colour and hair alone excepted.”

FitzRoy was a complicated man, who ended his life in a complicated way, but perhaps we should have got more of our science from him. In the year 2003, the Human Genome Project revealed that there is no genetic basis for ‘race’, with humans being 99.9% identical at the DNA level; and found that more variation exists among individuals of the same ‘race’ than between individuals of different ‘races’.