You might say never a Newton! Not that Lucretius was the cause of the whole thing, but he, or the discovery of him, was part of it.
BTW, there's no real suggestion of evolution in Lucretius. He is quite remarkable for positing a material, i.e. atomic basis for life, and in particular embryonic development. A very advanced way of thinking! OTOH he seems to accept a fixed order of things emerging from an original "creation", and his view of origins is creationist in that sense.
I never said there was. It is still true that Darwin may never have developed his theory without Lucretius.
He is quite remarkable for positing a material, i.e. atomic basis for life, and in particular embryonic development.
Lucretius' Atomism was borrowed from Democritus.
OTOH he seems to accept a fixed order of things emerging from an original "creation", and his view of origins is creationist in that sense.
Correct, it was a creation but without a creator, the latter being an idea with which he was clearly uncomfortable given the pagan religion of his day.