From Lady Victorian Historian
Christianity Rejected (in reality)
Christianity was being reduced to a bunch of rules and regulations. More often than not Christianity was stiffness and exclusiveness. The society attempted to maintain a moral facade, but underneath Utilitarianism reigned heartlessly.
Darwin became popular, not because he had new ideas (evolution had been around since ancient Greece if not before), but because folks wanted it. The Industrial Revolution was atheistic at its core. It ran rough shod over individuals, children, families, married couples, etc. Survival of the fittest (see Herbert Spencer) was used for business practices whereas in the early part of the Victorian Era at least a nod was given to the Golden Rule by businesses.There was more than a hint at infanticide with respect to the poor. Remember many of the Nazi generals were children of the Victorian Era ... they were only putting into practice what had been espoused earlier. (Train up a child in the way ...)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson gives a vivid example of how bereft of morals the Victorian Era had become internally.
Spiritualism, on the other hand, was growing at a breakneck speed.Is it any wonder that God would be defied? and a love of decadence would be apparent?
Many today have confused the Victorian Era as mainstream Christianity when that could be nothing further form the truth
It would be the Victorian Era that would produce domineering anarchists, socialists, and communists.
In many respects it was an empty era promoting hopelessness and, later, destruction.
~ from the notes of Lady Victorian Historian