Charles Darwin: The Father of Evolution -- Part 1

As the father of the theory of evolution, Charles Darwin, significantly contributed to science and literature through his most notable work On the Origin of Species. Born in a time of a very theologically conservative society, Darwin’s theories of evolution were met with much opposition. However, his work in the field remains invaluable to science today.

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. As a young man, Darwin was not an exceptional student. His father had enrolled him in a medical school, but soon found that Darwin’s heart lie not with medicine. Therefore Darwin enrolled at Christ’s College at Cambridge University. By 1831, Darwin was finished all the courses required for a clergy degree, only needing an elective course to graduate. It was here that Darwin’s life as the father of evolution began to surface. He decided to take a geology course, reading Alexander von Humboldt’s A Personal Narrative of travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent during the Years 1799-1804. This spurred Darwin’s interest in “the voyage of discovery.” (Cullen 46).

However, possibly the most influential scientist on Darwin’s journey would be the Scottish geologist Charles Lyell. Darwin brought Lyell’s book, The Principle of Geology, onboard Commander Fitzroy’s H.M.S Beagle to pass the time during an expedition to the shores of South America and Pacific Islands. Many of Lyell’s theories were contradictory with the accepted theological explanations of the history of the Earth. Many other scientists at the time believed the world to be merely six thousand years old, with its creatures in the same form as they were since the beginning. They saw God as the one who placed all creatures on earth as the perfect forms as they are now. However, Lyell argued that epic earthquakes and floods as described in Genesis did not shape the Earth. Rather, he reasoned that the geography of the lands were formed by the gradual process of erosion, thus showing that Earth and its creatures have been in existence far longer than six thousand years.

Upon reaching the different locations of certain ecosystems and habitats, Darwin saw the vast variety of similar, yet different species that populated the area, thus spurred him to begin to question many of the former theological explanations of creation. For example, on the Chiles Andes Mountains, Darwin saw fossilized seashells on the sides of mountains, no doubt sign that prehistoric ocean life had once dwelled here. On the Punta Alta beach in South America, he found the skull of a giant rodent that was once of the size of an elephant, quite similar to the present day caribou. Darwin began to question God’s role in creation, for “…why [did] God bother to create such similar animals [?] Why did God destroy the larger ones only to replace them with smaller versions?” (Cullen 47) thus setting the framework for his most notable book On the Origin of Species.

Perhaps the most influential example that swayed Darwin to formulate the theory of evolution would be the varieties of finches on the Galapagos Islands. These volcanic islands were located near the equator, off the coast of Ecuador. Holding vastly diverse forms of life, Darwin collected multiple specimens of different organisms, more notably, finches. The difference in each variety’s anatomy aided Darwin in leading to his conclusion of evolution. Upon accurately drawing some thirteen specimens, Darwin came to notice that each bird was slightly different from the rest. He observed that the birds’ beak was specifically designed to fit the individual’s survival mechanism.  Some possessed bills built for nuts cracking, others for catching insects or eating fruits. Darwin diligently recorded his findings in his notes, later analyzing and compiling them into his book On the Origin of Species.

When he returned to England, Darwin consulted his friends Charles Lyell and John Gould, a well-known ornithologist, to aid him analyze the findings. He realized that people at the time had actually used evolution to their advantage through the use of artificial selection, “the process in which farmers select domesticated animals or cultivated plants for breeding based on their possession of a desirable characteristic.” (Cullen 52) Darwin also read works from other authors, one example being Thomas Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population. Malthus explained that the growth of the human population was limited due to the lack of sufficient amount of resources to provide for an increase in individuals. It is from Malthus’s work that Darwin realized “As many more individuals are produced than can possibly survive, there must in every case be a struggle for existence…” (Fleisher 15) So, in On the Origin of Species, Darwin wrote that evolution was “…effected chiefly through the natural selection of numerous successive, slight, favourable variations; aided in an important manner by the inherited effects of the use and disuse of parts; and in an unimportant manner, that is in relation to adaptive structures, whether past or present, by the direct action of external conditions and by variations which seem to us in our ignorance to arise spontaneously.” (Darwin 216) Thus, Darwin’s theory of evolution was born.

However even with overwhelming evidence to support his theory, Darwin knew that many would reject his conclusions due to religious reasons. His theory of evolution would have been further delayed if it hadn’t been for Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace sent Darwin an essay of his own observations regarding the birth of speciation titled “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type.”  Darwin saw how similar their findings were and realized that he wasn’t the only one arriving at the same conclusions.

Darwin’s resulting book from these conclusions was not greeted with open arms. Society, especially the field of science, at the time was heavily influenced by religious views. As Darwin had dreaded, many other scientists rebuked On the Origin of Species, such as zoologist Richard Owen and Louis Agassiz. However, Darwin was not alone. Many renowned scientists of the time also supported his theory of evolution. Without the eloquent words of biologist Henry Huxley and botanist Joseph Hooker to speak for him, Darwin’s theories probably would have been lost to the opposition of the masses. This clash of ideals soon escalated to a full-scale debate at Oxford University. Bishop Samuel Wilberforce mocked Darwin’s ideas by asking Huxley “if it was through his grandmother or grandfather that was descended from a monkey.” (Cullen 56) This question foreshadowed the topic of Darwin’s next work, The Descent of Man, which directly asserted the idea of human descent from monkeys. In 1871, the work was published, but surprisingly, it didn’t cause as much controversy as Darwin’s original work, simply because by that time, many other scientists had already accepted the idea of human evolution. In short, while at first Darwin’s theory sparked controversy, it eventually became widely accepted by many scientists.