Essay, Research Paper: A Short Biography Of Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Of all theoretical philosophs, one name stands out in everyone's mind. Charles Darwin has influenced almost every aspect of life, he observed and thought upon Natural Selection, his ideas have influenced the theory of Evolution, and he has had a great impact on modern day life.

Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He was the son of Robert Waring Darwin and his wife Susannah; and the grandson of the scientist Erasmus Darwin, and of the potter Josiah Wedgwood. His mother died when he was eight years old, and he was brought up by his sister. He was taught classics at Shrewsbury, then sent to Edinburgh to study medicine, which he hated, and a final attempt at educating him was made by sending him to Christ's College, Cambridge, to study theology in 1827. During that period he loved to collect plants, insects, and geological specimens, guided by his cousin William Darwin Fox, an entomologist. His scientific inclinations were encouraged by his botany professor, John Stevens Henslow, who was instrumental, despite heavy paternal opposition, in securing a place for Darwin as a naturalist on the surveying expedition of HMS Beagle to Patagonia in 1831.

It was on James Island in the Galapagos that Darwin first began to notice and formulate the theories of Natural Selection. He began to notice the marine lizards, which, on closer inspection, appeared to him to be small dragons. Upon examining one, Darwin found seaweed in the intestines, concluding that they swam out to sea to find it in large quantities. He also found that unless they needed to eat, they came on land, where there are no predators. "I opened the stomachs of several, and found them largely distended with minced sea-weed (Ulvae), which grows in thin foliaceous expansions of a bright green or a dull red colour. I do not recollect having observed this sea-weed in any quantity on the tidal rocks; and I have reason to believe it grows at the bottom of the sea, at some little distance from the coast. If such be the case, the object of these animals occasionally going out to sea is explained. The stomach contained nothing but the sea-weed. Mr. Baynoe, however, found a piece of crab in one; but this might have got in accidentally, in the same manner as I have seen a caterpillar, in the midst of some lichen, in the paunch of a tortoise. The intestines were large, as in other herbivorous animals. The nature of this lizard's food, as well as the structure of its tail and feet, and the fact of its having been seen voluntarily swimming out at sea, absolutely prove its aquatic habits; yet there is in this respect one strange anomaly, namely, that when frightened it will not enter the water. Hence it is easy to drive these lizards down to any little point overhanging the sea, where they will sooner allow a person to catch hold of their tails than jump into the water. They do not seem to have any notion of biting; but when much frightened they squirt a drop of fluid from each nostril. I threw one several times as far as I could, into a deep pool left by the retiring tide; but it invariably returned in a direct line to the spot where I stood. It swam near the bottom, with a very graceful and rapid movement, and occasionally aided itself over the uneven ground with its feet. As soon as it arrived near the edge, but still being under water, it tried to conceal itself in the tufts of sea-weed, or it entered some crevice. As soon as it thought the danger was past, it crawled out on the dry rocks, and shuffled away as quickly as it could. I several times caught this same lizard, by driving it down to a point, and though possessed of such perfect powers of diving and swimming, nothing would induce it to enter the water; and as often as I threw it in, it returned in the manner above described. Perhaps this singular piece of apparent stupidity may be accounted for by the circumstance, that this reptile has no enemy whatever on shore, whereas at sea it must often fall a prey to the numerous sharks. Hence, probably, urged by a fixed and hereditary instinct that the shore is its place of safety, whatever the emergency may be, it their takes refuge." Quote from, The Voyage of the Beagle, by Charles Darwin. Moving inland, Darwin found another species of Iguana that lived on land. These species were similar to each other, but different from other species on other islands.

The next creature Darwin found was the Giant Tortoise. He was not the first to discover them, but the first to study them. He noticed that they had developed a hump in their shell over their head, so they could reach up higher into the bushes and cacti. This interested Darwin, as did the patterns on the tortoises' shells. On every island the pattern was slightly different, and each camouflaged to the particular environment of each island. These things intrigued Darwin, but what led him to think of the evolutionary aspect of Natural Selection was the birds. On one island Darwin found finches that had developed strong thick beaks for cracking nuts and seeds, on another the beak was smaller to enable the bird to catch insects, on another again the beak was adjusted to feeding on fruits and flowers. There was even one of the same species of finch, on another dry island, that had learned how to use cactus spine to probe grubs out of holes. Darwin's theory states that most plants and animals produce offspring that show wide variety of traits- children are not entirely like parents, some species produce many offspring and only a few survive, and others produce few offspring but devote much attention to young. Some variants are better able to survive than others and those that survive eventually dominate. Darwin's own words were, "the world as we know it, was not just 'created' in a single instant of time; it had evolved from something indefinitely primitive and it was changing still."

According to Darwin, the birds had moved to each island and, upon finding different sources of food, and through successive generations had "adjusted themselves accordingly." This fascinated and scared Darwin all at once. He was looking at what his grandfather Eurasmus Darwin had begun to ponder. He was looking at Natural Selection. Until this point in time, he had never openly objected to the current belief in the creation of unchangeable species. But now, with what he was looking at, with the finches, tortoises, and all other species on the islands, he was forced to question the most fundamental contemporary theories. He was now forced to question more than other scientists; he was to question the Church, and whether or not Natural Selection could be applied to people.

The theory of Evolution, as most people know it, is that man came from monkeys. This is an incorrect view. Charles Darwin first proposed the theory in 1859 in his book The Origin of Species. He incorporated it with his theory of Natural Selection, which we now come to know as fact. Darwin merely took Natural Selection to the next step when he proposed Evolution. The theory states that everything comes from something "infinitely primitive." That species undergo Natural Selection until they are at the top of their food chain. Humans, for example, came from whatever life was at the beginning, and evolved through different species that died out, through the "missing link," and to our present form. We began as early Paranthropus, moved to Australopithecus, and progressed to the form everyone knows, Homo Erectus. We then moved on to Neanderthal Man, and eventually to Cro-Magnon Man. From Cro-Magnon Man we progressed to our current state of Homo Sapiens. People who know little about Evolution, and criticize it, think we came from chimpanzees. As close as some people may look to chimps, it would be impossible for us to come from a species still living. Natural Selection proves this.

The impact that the theory of Evolution has had on religion has been enormous. No other theory has aroused stronger opposition from nonscientists than Evolution. Opposition comes from religious groups, but not from the mainstream religions, but rather from fundamentalists. Creationism, or the belief that all the basic kinds of plants and animals were brought into being by a supernatural creator using sudden special processes which are not operative today, is what religion teaches. The problem I see is that most of creationist literature, based on evolution is negative. They spend most of their time attacking evolution without proposing alternatives that can be tested. If you are proposing creationism as a science, then it should be able to be tested and should solve problems, as people can do with Evolution and Natural Selection. Evolution's impact on religion has sparked a tremendous amount of literary and learned material. From books such as The Creationists, to pro religious/anti-Evolution web pages such as http://www.access.digex.net/~medved/evolution/evolution.html, and http://www.rae.org/revevchp.html, to pro Evolution pages like http://www.cs.stedwards.edu/u/wright/sci20/create.html, to secular views of why Evolution is bad like http://freeweb.pdq.net/smokin/evolution/. It has also inspired magazines, speeches, sermons, artwork, and even computer games.

The effects of Darwin, Natural Selection, and Evolution on modern day life have been profound. Life magazine featured a top 100 events of all time, and Darwin's theory of Natural Selection was featured as the 15th most important thing of all time. Later in the magazine, Darwin is featured as the 9th most important person of all time. The articles talk about his work in the Galapagos with the Galapagos finch, his observations, and the process of Natural Selection. The magazine goes on to talk about how Darwin was denounced as a heretic, for hinting at an ancestral link between humans and an ape like creature. It also says, "today Evolution is as basic to most people's world view as the idea that the earth circles the sun," and that apes and humans share an ancestry, but 40% of scientists still believe in God.

The Internet is a near limitlessness supply of web pages created and designed by everyone from official organizations to people with too much free time. The web page at http://www.polaris.net/~jpinson/welcome.html is the Charles Darwin Research Station, on the Isla Santa Cruz in the Galapagos Islands. The principal focus of Charles Darwin Research Station is scientific research. Research by staff scientists and consultants is directed mainly toward the conservation and management of Galapagos National Park and the Galapagos Marine Resources Reserve. Visiting scientists from all over the world come to Galapagos to perform research on a wide variety of topics, such as evolutionary biology, geology, ecotourism, climatology, and population genetics. The Charles Darwin Research Station promotes research tables and cooperative research agreements with both national and international scientific research institutions. Many other "unofficial" web sites exist, such as http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/nathist/darwin/darwin.html, The C. Warren Irvin, Jr., Collection of Charles Darwin and Darwiniana, which is a collection of books by and about Darwin, and his work. There is also http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/inherit/1925home.html, which gives an in-depth look at the Scopes "Monkey Trial," in which Darwin and Evolution were first brought into the courtroom.

Bumper stickers such as the ever-popular Darwin fish adorn many cars and the Jesus fish meant to counter the evolutionary aspect of Darwin. Darwin's name is everywhere. In a local newsletter put our by HN Taylor Fertilizers, the "Darwin Awards" give recognition to those "intellectually challenged individuals who have improved the human gene pool by eliminating themselves." 10 different nominees from around the world were written about whom, by some fault of their own, killed themselves. These are a few examples of the comedic aspect Darwin has provided us. This is an excerpt from the newsletter; Toronto, Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in a downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane with his shoulder and plunged 24 floors to his death. A police spokesmen said 39 year old, Garry Hoy, fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Domination Bank Tower early Friday evening as he was explaining the strength of the windows to visiting law students. Hoy had previously conducted demonstration of window strength according to police reports. Peter Lauwers, managing partner of the firm Holden, Day, & Wilson, told the Toronto Sun, they Hoy was "one of the best and brightest" members of the 200-man association. James Burns, 34, of Alamo, Michigan, was killed in March as he was trying to repair what police describe as a "farm type truck." Burns got a friend to drive the truck on a highway while Burns hung underneath so that he could ascertain the source of the troubling noise. Burns' clothes caught on something, however, and the other man found Burns "wrapped in the drive shaft." National Geographic has also written several articles on Darwin and Evolution such as the numerous articles about the state of the Galapagos Islands and the endangered species that live there. There are also twenty five or so articles that deal with Evolution. National Geographic applied Evolution to the creation of insects, the causes of cancer, and the search for our ancestors.


Darwin has not only influenced us with his theories, but also with the way he arrived at his conclusions. He was always striving to find out more about the animals he studied. His, The Voyage of the Beagle has been rewritten, analyzed, interpreted, and reinterpreted, and his other books have been puled apart as well. We now know that his theory of Natural Selection proves true, and we apply it to science in every way possible. Darwin's impact on today's world has been more than, I think, anyone could have anticipated. But his impact on religion was to be expected. Evolution was, and still is a main reason more and more people are becoming Atheist. The fact you can't scientifically prove Creationism was a push toward Atheism. Everything from school textbooks to personal computers and web pages such as http://www.polaris.net/~jpinson/welcome.html have been affected by him. Darwin's work will be known throughout time, no matter what revelations come to science.