The Charles Darwin biopic Creation contains one of the most robust defences of atheism and agnosticism ever to appear in a mainstream film, says Ariane Sherine

From the Book of Genesis to Haydn's great oratorio, the concept of "creation" is inextricably linked to the whole "built-world-in-six-days-then-

had-a-nap" shebang. For this and countless other reasons, John Collee's resplendent cinematic homage to Charles Darwin will doubtless ruffle the made-in-a-day feathers of evolution deniers around the world – if, as currently seems unlikely, it can find a US distributor.

The film is based on the biography Annie's Box by conservationist Randal Keynes, one of Darwin's great-great-grandsons. It spans the years between 1841, just after the birth of his beloved daughter Annie, and 1859 – as he submits the only manuscript for On the Origin of Species, worryingly placing the most revolutionary idea in the history of thought on the back of a rickety old cart.

The intervening portrayal, sketched by a brilliant and beardless Paul Bettany, is that of a diffident, tortured and conflicted genius who propagates a scientific revolution despite the grumpiness of his devoutly religious wife Emma (played by Bettany's real-life spouse, Jennifer Connelly).

Inevitably, Darwin's story has been narrativised, tightened and passed through a dullness filter to Hollywoodify it (no reference to his work The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms here). Purists will grumble at the melodramatic sequences between Emma and Charles, laden with poetic licence at its most inventive, while several minor details are historically inaccurate, such as locations (and the science stuff wouldn't stymie a nine-year-old).

However, even Darwin pedants should see this as a timely, compelling and essential reminder of his brain-boggling contribution to our understanding of the world. It also contains one of the most robust defences of atheism and agnosticism ever to appear in a mainstream film.

A kind, funny and humble family man, Darwin is as endearing as they come, and yet he refuses to sing or pray in church, walks abruptly out of a service and takes issue with the cruel local vicar.

He can't accept the idea of a God who would knowingly create parasitic, tortuous creatures, or sculpt a system featuring so much natural wastage. The guileless candour of his winsome and fiercely bright daughter also encourages Darwin to pursue his scientific endeavours.

Evolution and doubt are equated with truth and courage throughout the film, and the adverse consequences of blind faith and superstition are amply demonstrated.

The film is nuanced and intelligent enough, however, not to cast all its religious characters as merely backward. Emma is a complex yet ultimately sympathetic God-botherer; in the end, paradoxically, she is redeemed in the eyes of the viewer by a faithless yet utterly faithful gesture.

Conversely, the god-free Thomas Huxley, best known as "Darwin's bulldog", cuts a rather bullying and mocking figure. When he jibes: "You've killed God, sir", Darwin's sense of alarm is both palpable and understandable, given the prevailing Victorian attitudes towards faith.

Creation has a rare emotional pull, and several moments are deeply sobering. At the end of one of the film's finest pieces of dialogue, Darwin's closest friend Joseph Hooker pleads with him, "All of us [scientists] are fighting the same battle – you could win it for us."

And yet, 150 years later, between 40% and 50% of Americans still believe in the literal truth of the Biblical account of the universe's origins, and the largely creationist religious right still has the power to influence US law-making.

The battle may be easier now, but it is far from won.

Let's hope (but never pray) that one stateside distributor sees sense and risks the inevitable opprobrium to screen this film where it is most needed. It could help Genesis literalists evolve. Creation, like the 13.7-billion-year-old universe itself, is truly glorious.

Ariane Sherine is a television comedy writer and journalist from London. A blog she wrote for the Guardian last year kickstarted the Atheist Bus Campaign