Biography of Charles Darwin ,Charles Darwin Biography: Evolution and Religion
Biography of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin, the mild mannered son of aphysician, was once described as the most dangerous man in England. In fact many people considered him to be theagent of the Devil himself, come to sow seeds of corruption among the faithful. His ideas struck like a storm at the veryfoundation of society, turning conventional religious thought on its head. Yet just a few years earlier he had his sightsset on becoming priest and devoting his life to God. In this week’s Biographics we investigatethe life and ideas of Charles Darwin.
Early Years
When Charles was a teenager, science beganto captivate him, so much so, in fact, that he and his brother Erasmus built a chemistrylab in a garden shed. In 1825, Charles attended Edinburgh MedicalSchool in Scotland, but he was not a good medical student. He found the lectures dull, and he had toleave the operating theatre because he could not stand the horrors of surgery. One thing he did enjoy was the study of taxidermy,which he learned from a former African slave named John Edmonstone. A Growing Fascination During his second year in Scotland, Darwinjoined the Plinian Society, a club for naturalists.
He was taken with their intellectual debates,which exposed him to ideas of how man was created, not by God, but by gradual changesin form over time. These ideas had been espoused by Charles’own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin. While at the university, Darwin met a zoologistnamed Robert Grant, and the two became close friends. Grant has been credited with being the firstperson to interest Darwin in the theory of evolution. At this time, Charles began collecting fossilsand learning more about animal life. To the great disappointment of his father,Charles quit Medical School in 1827. He joined his uncle, Josiah Wedgwood II fora trip to Paris. As he vacationed, his father, still frettingover his son dropping out of medical school, made plans for Charles to study for the clergy,enrolling him at Christ’s College at Cambridge University.
Despite the evolutionary ideas that had beenfilling his mind during his time at Edinburgh, Charles still held to a belief in creation. Later he wrote, “I did not then in the leastdoubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible.” During the summer, before his studies began,Charles fell in love with a girl by the name of Fanny Owen, the sister of one of his friends. They spent long hours talking, riding horsesand playing cards. Darwin’s theological studies at Cambridgebegan towards the end of 1827. But, rather than getting immersed in the Bible,he developed a fondness for collecting beetles. He attended lectures on botany given by theReverend John Stevens Henslow. Darwin saw this as a possible career path,and he pursued his studies with enthusiasm. By 1829, it became clear that Darwin had nointerest in joining the clergy.
He spent that spring break with the ReverendFrederick Hope, a noted entomologist. His obsession with the study of beetles sawno time for his budding romance with Fanny and they broke up the following spring. Despite his general lack of interest in hisclerical studies, Darwin passed his final exams in January, 1831, placing tenth in hisclass. Finished with school he was all set to becomea countryside clergy, albeit one with deep scientific interest. But, Reverend Henslow, who had become a mentorto Charles, suggested that he should see some of the world before settling down to a clergicalposting. Darwin decided to take a trip to the CanaryIslands, off the coast of Spain. He planned to go with his friend MarmadukeRamsay. They intended to study the geological formationson the islands. But, before they could set sail, Ramsay diedsuddenly. Darwin was stricken with grief and could nottravel to the islands.
A few weeks later, though, he received a letterfrom Reverend Henslow, informing him that there was an opening on a ship that may interesthim - the HMS Beagle, which was bound for South America. A 5 Year Voyage The Beagle was being prepared as one of severalships scheduled to map South America. Robert Fitzroy, the captain of the Beagle,recognized that the long voyage would require that a variety of men be onboard for companionship. He was keen to have a scholar-gentleman whocould help describe the areas that were being charted, as well to relieve the tedium betweenports of call. When the opening presented itself, Darwinwas keen to fill the spot. However, his father, Robert, refused to givehis adult son permission to embark on the voyage. Robert continued to believe that Charles’interest in science was merely a passing fad and that the young man remained adrift. It was left to Charles’ uncle, Josiah, tostep in and persuade his brother to give permission for his son to join the expedition. Charles then hastened to London to meet withCaptain Fitzroy in the hope that the offer was still available.
He was in luck, with plans for a Septemberdeparture gradually moved back. The ship finally set sail on Tuesday, December27th, 1831. Darwin found himself in a small cabin thatwas was nine by eleven feet long and only five feet high. Part of the cabin was taken up with one ofthe masts rising through it. From the start he was seasick, a conditionthat remained over the next five years. On January 16, 1832, the Beagle stopped atthe Cape Verde Islands, off the western coast of Africa. Here Darwin found a band of fossil shellsforty-five feet above sea level. How, he wondered, could the fossils rise sohigh. After twenty-three days, the crew set outfor Brazil, arriving in the port city of Salvador at the end of February 1832. Throughout the spring, the Beagle traveledalong the Brazilian coast, stopping in many ports. At each stop, Darwin took long hikes, collectingmany specimens. He collected a huge number of specimens whichhe carefully catalogued and protected onboard. Fitzroy and the crew considered his work worthlessand his growing collection a load of junk, but to Charles they were precious scientificdiscoveries.
Every few months he arranged for shipmentto be sent back to Reverend Henslow in Cambridge for safekeeping. From Brazil the Beagle sailed to Patagonia,a large region of South America that is now Argentina.There Darwin collected fossils,bits of bone, and feathers that he had never before encountered. He struggled to accurately record their featuresin the hopes that more experienced naturalists could later help to identify them. From Patagonia, the Beagle went further southto Tierra del Fuego. It was here that Darwin encountered nativepeople who still dwelled in the jungle and were considered to be savages by the Europeans. My March, 1833, the crew of the Beagle beganmapping the Falkland Islands, which the British had claimed from Argentina just months earlier. Fascinated by bird and animal fossils foundthere, Darwin spent his time comparing the specimens with everything he had collectedto date. The work that Darwin was immersed in was becomingso exhaustive that he recognized the need to take on a servant. He wrote home to his father asking for themoney to hire someone. When permission came back, he asked the ship’sodd-job man, Syms Covington, to take the role. Meanwhile, the letters that Charles had beensending back to Reverend Henslow, were being read aloud to the Philosophical Society ofCambridge. This earned Darwin an early reputation asan excellent naturlaist and observer.
On Darwin’s twenty-fifth birthday, CaptainFitzroy named the highest mountain in the Terra del Fuego region Mount Darwin, in Charles’honor. By April, 1834, the ship had sailed roundCape Horn at the southern tip of South America and crossed from the Atlantic to the PacificOcean. During the summer, Darwin became quite ill. He was deemed too sick to continue the voyageand spent four frustrating months in Tierra del Fuego recovering. Historians believe that he had Chagas Disease,which is a form of sleeping sickness. Darwin returned to the Beagle in November,1834. The ship rounded Cape Horn and sailed up SouthAmerica’s west coast. On February 20th 1835, a great earthquakeshook the region. Entering the port of Concepcion, Chile, Darwinsaw the appalling damage. He also noted that the rocks around the harborhad been lifted almost a metre by the earth movements. Shellfish and seaweeds which were normallynear the water were now high and dry. Could such catastrophic changes in the surroundingsbe linked to changes in plants and animals, he wondered. The Beagle now left South America and setsail across the Pacific Ocean. Almost 1,000 kilometers from the mainlandit anchored at a group of about 13 small rocky islands on the Equator. These were the Galapagos Islands. Darwin was immediately struck by the strangenature of the birds, reptiles and other others he found there.
They seemed unique to these islands, yet theyhad many similarities to species found on the South American mainland. Stranger still, each island had its own kindof the animal in question. One example was the giant tortoises, weighingmore than 200 kilograms, which the ship’s crew rode like horses. The local people could tell which island atortoise come from by the shape of its shell. Darwin was especially intrigued by one groupof birds, the finches. They were mostly small and drab brown in color. But each species had a slightly differentsize and shape of beak, allowing it to tackle a certain kind of food. Darwin noted in his notebook . . . One might really fancy that from an originalpaucity of birds in the archipelago one species had been taken and modified for differentends. The idea of evolution was taking root. The Beagle sailed on across the Pacific toTahiti, where Darwin fell in love with the misty peaks, tropical plants, colorful animalsand the simple, natural lifestyle of the local people. The journey continued on towards New Zealandand then Australia. He was shocked at the terrible living conditionsof the local people. In their own lands, they were ruled over andmade slaves by the European settlers.
This seemed to support his observations fromthe animal world, that the stronger always took over from the weaker. A Theory Evolves The Beagle returned to Falmouth, England on2nd October, 1836. They had been away for five years. Darwin spent the next few years organizingand cataloguing his vast collection of plants, animals,rocks and fossils. By the summer of 1838, Darwin felt bold enoughto share his radical ideas with his father, who took them in his stride. During the last several months, Charles hadstruck up a close relationship with his cousin, Emma Wedgwood. However, when he brought up the subject ofmarrying Emma, his father warned that she came from a very strict family - Emma’sfamily would never consider Darwin’s theories as anything but heresy. Deeply in love, Darwin ignored his father’sadvice to curtail the romance. He mentioned some of his notions regardingreligion and nature to Emma, who was surprisingly understanding. Darwin juggled numerous tasks, from writingbooks to studying more fossils, to watching apes and orangutans at the London Zoo. As he worked, he also continued his relationshipwith Emma. He proposed to her on November 11th, 1838.
The proposal was well received by both sidesof the family. Arrangements were made for Darwin to receivea handsome annual sum of money from his father. This would allow the couple to live comfortably,while Darwin continued retaining Covington’s services, since research on his theory ofevolution was still incomplete. Charles and Emma were married on january 29th,1839. The couple settled into a home in London,which was already filled with scientific material. Shortly thereafter, Covington left Darwin’semployment to make his own fortune. He was replaced by a man named Joseph Parslow. During the spring of 1839, Darwin carriedout research on cross-breeding. He asked various experts, including farmers,questions about how they crossbred their animals. He filled page after page with his correspondences. In May, the multi-volume collection he wrotewith Captain Fitzroy, Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of HMS Beagle, was finally releasedto the public. This celebration of the Beagle’s voyagebecame a bestseller. Charles was now a respected scientist andauthor and a member of the Royal Society. A Respected Scientist During the 1840’s and 1850’s, Darwin continuedhis research and writing.
In 1842, he wrote a geology book entitledThe Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, with two more geology books following in thenext few years. As time went on his health began to fail. He could only do a few hours’ work eachday. His illness was never identified, but it couldhave been the after effects of his tropical sickness while on his five year voyage. Despite his illness, he continued his researchinto the idea of evolution. He was becoming more convinced that specieswere not fixed and immutable. He had written a short version of his ideasin 1842, but decided to collect every scrap of information he could and write a lengthybook with masses of evidence for his theory. For many years, Darwin was reluctant to publishhis ideas on evolution by natural selection. It meant that animals and plants evolved naturally. He now believed that God had not created them. However, most people at the time- includingmany scientists - still believed in the truth of the Bible. He knew that speaking out against the acceptedteachings of the Bible was certain to offend and cause a storm of protest. The Book That Shocked the World Darwin may have never finished his work onevolution but for a letter which arrived at his home in Kent in June, 1885 from Malaysia. It was from another English naturalist, AlfredWallace. Wallace knew that Darwin was interested inevolution. So, with his letter he sent his summary ofthe theory.
Darwin was amazed. All the work he had done so patiently overthe past twenty years was neatly described by Wallace. At a scientific meeting at the Linnean Societyin London, the works of both Wallace and Darwin were read out in July, 1858. After that, Wallace agreed that Darwin, whohad gathered far more evidence to support their joint theory, should carry on with theidea while he stood aside. Darwin did so, quickly finishing his greatbook. It was published on 24th November 1859 andcalled The Origin of Species. The publisher of Darwin’s book, John Murray,read it before printing, and realized a great outcry would follow. As a result he only printed 1,250 copies. These sold out almost at once, and a secondedition was quickly produced. People were indeed outraged. Darwin was denying the truth of the Bible! Scientist lined up to have their say, withmany criticizing Dawin. One clergyman called the quiet, mild-manneredDarwin ‘the most dangerous man in England.’ But others quickly recognized the good sciencein Darwin’s ideas, and the vast amount of evidence which supported them. The biologist Thomas Huxley spoke for himin England, while professor of botany at Harvard University, Asa Gray, was his great supporterin North America. Darwin himself stayed in Kent and took littlepart in the arguments.
So what did Darwin actually postulate in hisfamous book? The Origin of Species by Means of NaturalSelection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life is a long butvery readable book. It begins by looking at variation under domestication,including pigeons, horses and garden flowers. Then it covers variation in nature and theproblems of identifying a species. It shows how the offspring of parents areall similar, but slightly different. These slight differences might give an individuala better chance of succeeding and staying alive. Later chapters deal with animal instincts,fossils and the geographical manner of animals and plants, from mice to elephants, asparagusto furze bushes. Yet he never explains the origin of any onespecies. The Origin of Species shocked and angeredmany people, including Darwin’s own family. To accept the theory of evolution meant acceptingthat the account in the Bible of creation of animal and plant species could not be true. Many scientists struggled to believe in both. Gradually, however, the theory of evolutionby natural selection gained ground, and most scientist came to believe that Darwin wasright. Darwin did not retire after The Origin ofSpecies was published. He kept up his studies and researches, andcarried on with his experiments and nature observations.
In 1871 he published Descent of Man and Selectionin Relation to Sex. In this work he concluded that humans arenot the result of special creation, but that they have evolved, along with other animals. Their ancestors could be traced far back intoprehistory. In the 1870’s Darwin’s health improved,and in 1877 he was awarded a special degree by Cambridge University. He continued to write books, about insecteating plants, how plants grow and move, and how they encourage decay and enrich the soil. With Descent a huge success as well, Darwindivided his time between revising the two works. In April, 1874, he completed work on Descent’ssecond edition. This was the last time he wrote about evolution. Between projects and illnesses, Darwin continuedto refine his work. A decade after its first publication, thefifth Edition of Origin was released. The sixth edition, published in 1871, usedthe word evolution for the first time. After a mild heart attack in December, 1881,Charles Darwin died peacefully at Down House, his home of nearly 50 years. He was 73 years of age. By this time the storm of protest over TheOrigin of Species had died away and Darwin had become a national figure and one of thebest-known scientific names of all time. He was laid to rest at Westminster Abbey,London, next to the great Isaac Newton. The funeral was attended by dozens of politicians,inventors, explorers, scientists and artists, along with members of the scientific communities of many countries.
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