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Background
Background
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) was an English naturalist, most famous for his contributions to evolutionary biology.
His most famous work, On the Origin of Species, was published in 1859. It was based on and included excerpts from his observations aboard HMS Beagle - a trip which included a stop at the Galapagos Islands.
A summary of the central idea
A summary of the central idea
Ernst Mayr summarised Darwin’s theory of evolution as follows:
Every species is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce, the population would grow (fact).
Despite periodic fluctuations, populations remain roughly the same size (fact).
Resources such as food are limited and are relatively stable over time (fact).
A struggle for survival ensues (inference).
Individuals in a population vary significantly from one another (fact).
Much of this variation is heritable (fact).
Individuals less suited to the environment are less likely to survive and less likely to reproduce; individuals more suited to the environment are more likely to survive and more likely to reproduce and leave their heritable traits to future generations, which produces the process of natural selection (fact).
This slowly effected process results in populations changing to adapt to their environments, and ultimately, these variations accumulate over time to form new species (inference).
And here is Darwin’s own summary of natural selection
If during the long course of ages and under varying conditions of life, organic beings vary at all in the several parts of their organisation, and I think this cannot be disputed; if there be, owing to the high geometrical powers of increase of each species, at some age, season, or year, a severe struggle for life, and this certainly cannot be disputed; then, considering the infinite complexity of the relations of all organic beings to each other and to their conditions of existence, causing an infinite diversity in structure, constitution, and habits, to be advantageous to them, I think it would be a most extraordinary fact if no variation ever had occurred useful to each being's own welfare, in the same way as so many variations have occurred useful to man. But if variations useful to any organic being do occur, assuredly individuals thus characterised will have the best chance of being preserved in the struggle for life; and from the strong principle of inheritance they will tend to produce offspring similarly characterised. This principle of preservation, I have called, for the sake of brevity, Natural Selection.
— Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, Chapter 4
Discussion
Discussion
Is Darwin’s theory of evolution in contradiction with Religion?
Darwin wasn’t the first to propose evolutionary theories. Ideas of evolution were certainly part of the fabric of Ancient Greek, Roman, and Chinese thought. Perhaps more surprisingly, evolutionary ideas were also prominent in the thought of the Early Church Fathers. Consider the following extracts:
For who that has understanding will suppose that the first, and second, and third day, and the evening and the morning, existed without a sun, and moon, and stars? And that the first day was, as it were, also without a sky? And who is so foolish as to suppose that God, after the manner of a husbandman, planted a paradise in Eden, towards the east, and placed in it a tree of life, visible and palpable, so that one tasting of the fruit by the bodily teeth obtained life? And again, that one was a partaker of good and evil by masticating what was taken from the tree? And if God is said to walk in the paradise in the evening, and Adam to hide himself under a tree, I do not suppose that anyone doubts that these things figuratively indicate certain mysteries, the history having taken place in appearance, and not literally.
— Origen of Alexandria (c.185 - c. 253), On the First Principles IV.Scripture informs us that the Deity proceeded by a sort of graduated and ordered advance to the creation of man. After the foundations of the universe were laid, as the history records, man did not appear on the earth at once, but the creation of the brutes preceded him, and the plants preceded them. Thereby Scripture shows that the vital forces blended with the world of matter according to a gradation; first it infused itself into insensate nature; and in continuation of this advanced into the sentient world; and then ascended to intelligent and rational beings (emphasis added).
—Bishop Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 - c. 395)Even Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) contributed to the idea of a kind of theistic evolution:
On the day on which God created the heaven and the earth, He created also every plant of the field, not, indeed, actually, but 'before it sprung up in the earth,' that is, potentially... All things were not distinguished and adorned together, not from a want of power on God's part, as requiring time in which to work, but that due order might be observed in the instituting of the world.
Given that these ideas were kicking about amongst Christians, why does the theory of Evolution cause such a fuss amongst Christian populations? Why was there the famous Scopes trial in the USA, for example?
Some Christians might feel that Darwin’s theory leaves no space for God, but is that true? Is there no mystery or sense of awe in the fact that life occurred at all? How did the first chemical that reproduced itself come into existence? And is it not true that, as Wittgenstein said, that ‘It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists’.
Tasks
Tasks
Explain Darwin’s theory of natural selection in your own words.
Why do you think that some people are disturbed by Darwin’s ideas?
Do you think that the theory of evolution has any impact on how we value other human beings (Or other animals or plants or anything)?
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