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'''Charles Darwin''' (12 February 1809 - 19 April 1883) was a famous naturalist born in England. Charles Darwin is best known for the [[Theory of Evolution]] by Natural Selection.  The concept is that organisms are modified over vast amounts of time by naturally occurring processes, originating from common ancestors that lived tens of millions of years ago. Outside the area of evolutionary theory in particular, Charles Darwin was regarded as an expert on barnacles, as well as being credited with discovering how coral [[atoll]]s were formed.

'''Charles Darwin''' (12 February 1809 - 19 April 1883) was a famous naturalist born in England. Charles Darwin is best known for the [[Theory of Evolution]] by Natural Selection.  The concept is that organisms are modified over vast amounts of time by naturally occurring processes, originating from common ancestors that lived tens of millions of years ago. Outside the area of evolutionary theory in particular, Charles Darwin was regarded as an expert on barnacles, as well as being credited with discovering how coral [[atoll]]s were formed.

==General Biography Of Charles Darwin==

==Evolution as a theory and a fact==

Charles Darwin was born in [[Shrewsbury]], [[England]] in 1809 to his parents Dr. Robert Darwin and Susannah Wedgewood. Darwin's mother was a religious woman but his father was, for the most part, a weak deist. Despite his lack of theistic religious belief, the Darwin's father allowed Charles to be baptized into the Anglican Church and encouraged him to become a clergyman. Darwin's mother died in 1817. In 1825 Charles Darwin went on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. There, he became horrified with the brutality of surgery before anesthesia was invented and quit his medical studies.

In 1831 Charles Darwin graduated from Christ's College at Cambridge with a BA degree in the classics and theology. On December 27 of the same year Charles Darwin departed on the ''HMS Beagle'' for a five year voyage of exploration. The ''Beagle'' returned to English shores on October 2 1836. In 1837, Charles Darwin drew his now famous depiction of [[common ancestry]] in the form of a branching tree.<ref>Charles Darwin, Transmutation Notebook B 1837:36</ref> The following year he discovered the concept of ''[[natural selection]].'' Darwin insists that naturally occurring phenomena and factors working together in blind tandem have produced nature and eventually mankind.  

The terms fact and theory can be applied to evolution, just as they are to gravity.[1] Misuse and misunderstanding of how those terms are applied to evolution have been used to construct arguments disputing the validity of evolution.

However, Charles Darwin originally based the idea of human evolution on a racist assumption<ref>Milton, Richard ''Shattering the Myths of Darwinism'' 1997:186,287 says "Darwin [was] openly racist"</ref>, [after God was rejected as Creator], made in the late 1830s<ref>Barlow, Nora (editor) ''The Autobiography of Charles Darwin'' 1958:130</ref>, that Fuegians (natives of Tierra del Fuego) resembled primates that he had observed in the London zoo.<ref>Larson, Edward J. ''Evolution: The Remarkable History Of A Scientific Theory'' 2004:66,67</ref>  In 1842 he wrote out a ''sketch'' of his theory but did not publish it. Again, in 1844 Charles Darwin produced what is known today as an ''essay'' of the same theory more developed but he still chose not to publish.  

In the study of biological species, the facts include fossils and measurements of these fossils. The location of a fossil is an example of a fact (using the scientific meaning of the word fact). In species that rapidly reproduce, for example fruit flies, the process of evolutionary change has been observed in the laboratory.[18] The observation of fruit fly populations changing character is also an example of a fact, using the scientific meaning of the word fact. So evolution is a fact, at least using the scientific meaning of the word fact. These facts require an explanation, just as the observations of gravity did.

Finally, in 1859, Charles Darwin published his famous theory about how the species may have been produced without any aid from a Divine Creator. He titled his book ''On [[The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection]], or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''. In 1871, well after his theory enjoyed widespread success, Darwin published his ideas on human evolution in a two-volume book titled ''[[The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex]].''

In biology, there have been many attempts to explain these observations over the years. Lamarckism, Transmutationism and Orthogenesis were all non-Darwinian theories that attempted to explain the observations of species and fossils and other evidence. However, the Theory of Evolution is the explanation for all relevant observations regarding the development of life, based on a model that explains all the available data and observations. Thus, evolution is not only a fact but also a theory, just as gravity is both a fact and a theory.

 

|Things falling is an observation of the pull of bodies towards each other.||Fruit flies changing generation to generation is an observation of generational organism change.

|Gravity is a fact.||Evolution is a fact.

|[[Aristotle]] and [[Galileo]] created explanations of the ''fact'' of gravity. These are now obsolete explanations. ||[[Lamarckism]], [[Transmutationism]] and [[Orthogenesis]] were created as explanations of the fact of evolution. These are now discredited explanations.

|[[Isaac Newton|Newton's]] explanation of gravity is approximately correct but required refinement.||[[Charles Darwin|Darwin's]] explanation of evolution is approximately correct, but required refinement.

|[[Einstein]]'s explanation is a refinement of Newton's explanation of gravity. Einstein's explanation is currently the most accepted explanation of the fact of gravity. || The [[modern evolutionary synthesis]] is a refinement of Darwin's explanation of evolution. This modern synthesis is currently the most accepted explanation of the fact of evolution.

|-

|Einstein's explanation of the fact of gravity is called ''The General theory of relativity''. ||The explanation of the fact of evolution provided by the modern synthesis is the latest and most widely accepted ''Theory of Evolution''.

==Religious Views fo Charles Darwin==

==Religious Views fo Charles Darwin==