In recent weeks there have been alarming reports from both Israel and Turkey of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution being erased from school curriculums. In Turkey, this has been blamed on the concept of evolution – which is taught in British primary schools – being beyond the understanding of high school students. In Israel, teachers are claiming that most students do not learn about evolution; they say their education ministry is quietly encouraging teachers to focus on other topics in biology.

This news follows the astonishing statements made by India’s minister for higher education earlier this year. Satyapal Singh claimed Darwin was “scientifically wrong”, and is demanding that the theory of evolution be removed from school curriculums because no one “ever saw an ape turning into a human being”.

It is tempting to shrug off these latest attacks on Darwin’s greatest contribution to natural science. After all, no other scientific theory has attracted the same level of impassioned opposition and detraction – certainly not for more than 150 years. But that would be to miss the particular urgency of improving our scientific understanding of the natural world and how best to protect it for the future.

Darwin’s theory of evolution not only underpins all biological science, it has an immense predictive power. From understanding the emergence of antibiotic-resistant organisms, to the ways in which different species might respond to global warming – emerging as new pests or sustainable sources of food – human health and prosperity will depend on decisions informed by evolutionary evidence.

At the Natural History Museum, we have a unique collection of over 80m specimens, which ranges from 2.7bn-year-old fossils to specimens collected in 2018. Accessed by our own 350 scientists and thousands of researchers annually from all over the world, this collection provides crucial baseline data against which changes in both the form and diversity of life can be measured over millions of years. The fantastic diversity of life and the molecular composition of life past and present in our collection is clear, concrete, accumulated evidence of evolution.

And yet … evolution is still questioned. Religious-based opposition aside, one reason for doubt seems to be the sheer unimaginable scale of what it describes. To understand evolution, you have to accept the concept of deep time – an immense arc of non-human history in which humanity’s time on this planet barely registers. Darwin himself said: “What an infinite number of generations, which the mind cannot grasp, must have succeeded each other in the long roll of years!”

From our own experience at the museum, the term “theory” is also partly to blame. It’s used interchangeably with idea, hunch, intuition, guess – all implying absence of substantive proof. Yet since its inception in the late 19th century, evolutionary theory has been thoroughly challenged and rigorously tested across a range of scientific disciplines by tens of thousands of scientists around the world. It is considered irrefutable scientific law.

So how should we respond to overt or insidious attempts to undermine this vital scientific concept? We must – of course – teach it in schools as the core part of any science curriculum. And we must speak up to defend scientific evidence and rational debate. But more than these things, we must inspire children with the sheer wonder and variety of nature, and ignite their curiosity in the world around them. These ideas are at the heart of all our public engagement at the Natural History Museum, because we believe that reconnecting with nature and empowering our visitors to understand how the choices we make could impact the world around us are urgent, vital tasks.

It may be a serious business, but it is never dull. In the first-ever play to be staged at the museum in a performance theatre, The Wider Earth charts Darwin’s perilous voyage aboard HMS Beagle and brings to life, through intricate puppets, some of the exotic wildlife he encountered. The specimens he collected on that voyage would inspire his theory of evolution and change how we understand the world. Many of them are in our collection to this day, used for global scientific research and available for visitors to see up close on our behind-the-scenes spirit collection tour.

As the top science attraction in the UK, the Natural History Museum will always be a refuge for those who want to discover more about the natural world. We will continue to defend Darwin’s legacy, the theory of evolution – the only evidence-based explanation for the epic, wonderful diversity of life on Earth.

• Michael Dixon is director of the Natural History Museum in London