Difference between revisions of "Charles Darwin"

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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.
  
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==General Biography Of Charles Darwin==
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==Evolution as a theory and a fact==
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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.
 
  
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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.  
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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.
  
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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.  
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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.
  
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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]].''
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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.
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{| class="wikitable" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3
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|-
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!style="background:#d0e5f5;color:black" |Gravity!!style="background:#d0e5f5;color:black" |Evolution
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|-
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|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.
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|-
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|Bodies pulling towards each other is called gravity.||Organisms changing generation to generation is called evolution.
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|-
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|Gravity is a fact.||Evolution is a fact.
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|-
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!style="background:#d0e5f5;color:black" |An explanation for the facts of gravity.!!style="background:#d0e5f5;color:black" |An explanation for the facts of evolution.
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|-
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|[[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.
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|-
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|[[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.
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|-
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|[[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.
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|-
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|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''.
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|-
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!style="background:#d0e5f5;color:black" |Gravity is a fact and a theory.!!style="background:#d0e5f5;color:black" |Evolution is a fact and a theory. 
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|}
  
 
==Religious Views fo Charles Darwin==
 
==Religious Views fo Charles Darwin==

Revision as of 23:45, June 23, 2008

Charles Darwin

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 atolls were formed.

Evolution as a theory and a fact

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.

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.

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.

Gravity Evolution
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.
Bodies pulling towards each other is called gravity. Organisms changing generation to generation is called evolution.
Gravity is a fact. Evolution is a fact.
An explanation for the facts of gravity. An explanation for the facts of evolution.
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.
Newton's explanation of gravity is approximately correct but required refinement. 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.
Gravity is a fact and a theory. Evolution is a fact and a theory.

Religious Views fo Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin in 1880 at the age of 71.

Charles Darwin likely abandoned Christianity as a student when he disappointed his father by refusing to become a minister. In his autobiography Charles Darwin wrote about the diminishment of his religious faith and Darwin stated that he was an agnostic. However, Darwin was being deceitful as he stated in his private notebooks that he was a materialist, which is a type of atheist.[1][2] Darwin wrote the following: "The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble to us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic."[3] In the 1996 British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Kim Sterelny wrote in a book review the following: "I have no doubt that Darwin was a materialist and a mechanist..."[4] Creation Ministries International states the following regarding why it is maintained that Charles Darwin was privately a materialist:

“ Ernst Mayr’s recent book on Darwin, One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Evolutionary Thought, Harvard, 1991, also acknowledges that Darwin’s references to purpose were to appease both the public and his wife. His early, private notebooks show his materialism well established. For instance, in one of them he addresses himself as, ‘O, you materialist!’ and says, ‘Why is thought, being a secretion of brain, more wonderful than gravity as a property of matter?’ He clearly already believed that the idea of a separate realm of the spirit was nonsense, as is further shown when he warns himself not to reveal his beliefs, as follows:

‘to avoid saying how far I believe in materialism, say only that emotions, instincts, degrees of talent which are hereditary are so because brain of child resembles parent stock.’[5]

”

Scholars refer to the private notebook in which Charles Darwin stated he was a materialist as the "M" notebook of 1838.[6] Ernst Mayr wrote that "It is apparent that Darwin lost his faith in the years 1836-39, much of it clearly prior to the reading of Malthus. In order not to hurt the feelings of his friends and of his wife, Darwin often used deistic language in his publications, but much in his Notebooks indicates that by this time he had become a 'materialist' (more or less = atheist)". [7]

According to Charles Darwin the "manifestly false history of the world" [8] as recorded in the Old Testament and New Testament miracles led him to reject Biblical veracity [9]. Eminent Darwin biographer, Professor Janet Browne, sums up Darwin's views concerning religion: Darwin "mapped out a comparative evolution of the religious sense, proposing that religious belief was ultimately nothing more than a primitive urge to bestow a cause on otherwise inexplicable natural events...In short, he made no secret of his view that he did not believe religion to have any rational foundation at all" [10]. When he died in 1882 at the age of seventy-three, Darwin was buried at Westminster Abbey next to Sir Isaac Newton.

However, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states the following regarding Charles Darwin:

“ In 1885, the Duke of Argyll recounted a conversation he had had with Charles Darwin the year before Darwin's death:

In the course of that conversation I said to Mr. Darwin, with reference to some of his own remarkable works on the Fertilisation of Orchids, and upon The Earthworms, and various other observations he made of the wonderful contrivances for certain purposes in nature—I said it was impossible to look at these without seeing that they were the effect and the expression of Mind. I shall never forget Mr. Darwin's answer. He looked at me very hard and said, “Well, that often comes over me with overwhelming force; but at other times,” and he shook his head vaguely, adding, “it seems to go away.”(Argyll 1885, 244] [11]

”

There exists in hostile Darwin literature a story about a Christian called Lady Hope who visited and spoke with a dying Charles Darwin. This appears to be merely a legend, and there is no evidence that Lady Hope ever converted or even visited Darwin on his deathbed. [12]

Darwin's Sickness and Controversy Regarding His Sickness

For more on this topic see: Darwin's Sickness

For most of his adult life Charles Darwin suffered from very poor health.[13] The 1992 New Encyclopaedia Britannica stated that Darwin's illness was psychogenic in origin (A psychogenic illness is one that originates in the mind or in mental condition). [14] A 1997 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association entitled "Charles Darwin and Panic Disorder" states that the "variable intensity of symptoms and chronic, prolonged course without physical deterioration also indicate that his illness was psychiatric." [15] In regards to illness associated with evolutionary ideas a journal article in the American Journal of Medicine states that Darwin suffered from "psychoneurosis provoked and exaggerated by his evolutionary ideas".[16] The American Journal of Medicine article also stated that his Darwin's wife, Emma, greatly disapproved of his evolutionist ideas and "This, facsimile of public reaction, must have kept lively his anxiety and torment". [17] According to the abstract for a 1997 journal article in the Notes and Records of the Royal Society the psychogenic hypothesis for the origin of Darwin's illness "holds the field" but the article questions the validity of this diagnoses and mentions the work of Ralph Colp Jr. MD, a physician and psychiatrist (For details see: Darwin's Sickness). [18][19]

Given Darwin's likely psychogenic or psychobiological illness various creationists have stated that Darwin's illness was the result of guilt and/or fear. [20][21]

Criticism of the Work of Charles Darwin by Cliff Lillo

Cliff Lillo wrote:

Darwin was wrong when he says that science has not yet proved Lamarck in error about spontaneous generation, wrong when he says that changes in habit can be inherited, and wrong when he says that use or disuse of an organ can be passed along from parent to child, etc. [1]


Reaction of Charles Darwin to Criticism of His Work

Charles Darwin closely followed the general public's reaction to his evolutionary ideas. In 2002, Richard Milner wrote an article entitled Putting Darwin in his Place and stated that Darwin "clipped, catalogued and indexed hundreds of offprints, about 350 reviews and 1,600 articles, as well as satires, parodies and Punch caricatures, with which he filled hefty scrapbooks..."[22] Criticisms of his work troubled Darwin. Milner wrote that after Charles Lyell published a weak endorsement of Darwin's work in Lyell's Antiquity of Man, "Darwin's disappointment brought on 10 days of vomiting, faintness and stomach distress". [23] In addition, Milner states when anatomist St. George Mivart made a negative review of Darwin's work The Descent of Man, it "triggered two months of "giddiness" and inability to work..." [24]

Family Life

Author Peter Brent wrote of Darwin's relationship with his wife Emma and stated that "Their ties to each other were linked to childhood and the very beginnings of memory. They had a common history, a joint tradition. It is hard to think their relationship a passionate one, but it was happy, and the happiness had deep roots."[25] Charles Darwin displayed a dependency on his wife that was childlike. Darwin wrote a letter to his wife in 1848 that said, "My dearest old Mammy ... Without you, when sick I feel most desolate .. Oh Mammy I do long to be with you and under your protection for then I feel safe."[26] Peter Brent states that it is hard to imagine that the letter was from thirty-nine year old man writing to his wife rather than a young child writing to its mother.[27] In their article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, entitled Charles Darwin and Panic stated that Darwin felt "nervousness when Emma leaves me".[28] Darwin had ten children with his wife Emma. [29]

Darwin's Racism

Charles Darwin wrote in his work The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex the following:

“ At some future period not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes...will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest Allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as the baboon, instead of as now between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla.[30] ”

Darwin's Belief in Male Superiority

In Darwin's work The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex he wrote the following:

“ ... a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can women—whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands. If two lists were made of the most eminent men and women in poetry, painting, sculpture, music (inclusive of both composition and performance), history, science, and philosophy, with half-a-dozen names under each subject, the two lists would not bear comparison. We may also infer, from the law of the deviation from averages, so well illustrated by Mr. Galton, in his work on “Hereditary Genius” that ... the average of mental power in man must be above that of women.[31] ”

Charles Darwin and the Cult of Personality

There is a cult of personality and type of religiousity currently surrounding Charles Darwin. Stephen Jay Gould wrote the following in 1978: ""... all theories [of natural selection] cite God in their support, and ... Darwin comes close to this status among evolutionary biologists ...".[32] In 2002, Michael White similarly wrote: "Of course today, for biologists, Darwin is second only to God, and for many he may rank still higher."[33]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1877
  2. ↑ http://www.update.uu.se/~fbendz/library/cd_relig.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.update.uu.se/~fbendz/library/cd_relig.htm
  4. ↑ http://www.jstor.org/view/00070882/ap020188/02a00130/1?frame=noframe&userID=80cdbf39@buffalo.edu/01cce4405c00501c2c38a&dpi=3&config=jstor British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Volume 47, 1996, page 641
  5. ↑ http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1877
  6. ↑ Barrett, Paul H. Darwin on Man 1974:276
  7. ↑ American Scientist May 1977:323
  8. ↑ ibid. Barlow 1958:85.
  9. ↑ ibid. Barlow 1958:85-87.
  10. ↑ Browne, Janet Charles Darwin The Power of Place 2002:341
  11. ↑ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/teleological-arguments/notes.html
  12. ↑ http://www.carm.org/evo_questions/deathbed.htm
  13. ↑ http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i4/darwins_illness.asp
  14. ↑ http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i4/darwins_illness.asp
  15. ↑ Charles Darwin and Panic Disorder" by Thomas J. Barloon, MD and Russel Noyes, Jr., January 8, 1997 Journal of the American Medical Association
  16. ↑ "The Illness of Charles Darwin", William B. Bean, September 1978, American Journal of Medicine
  17. ↑ "The Illness of Charles Darwin", William B. Bean, September 1978, American Journal of Medicine
  18. ↑ http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/content/c5la8dhfh8v7tbx8/
  19. ↑ http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia/Encyclopedia/20hist06.htm
  20. ↑ http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i4/darwins_illness.asp
  21. ↑ http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia/Encyclopedia/20hist06.htm
  22. ↑ http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000B62D6-7E63-1D7E-90FB809EC5880000#
  23. ↑ http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000B62D6-7E63-1D7E-90FB809EC5880000#
  24. ↑ http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000B62D6-7E63-1D7E-90FB809EC5880000#
  25. ↑ Peter Brent, "Darwin: A Man of Enlarged Curiosity", page 316
  26. ↑ http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/dar9.html
  27. ↑ http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/dar9.html
  28. ↑ Charles Darwin and Panic Disorder" by Thomas J. Barloon, MD and Russel Noyes, Jr., January 8, 1997 Journal of the American Medical Association
  29. ↑ http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Browne_EmmaDiaries.html
  30. ↑ The Descent of Man, chapter VI
  31. ↑ http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2007/08/24/feedback-female-inferiority
  32. ↑ http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/dar1.html
  33. ↑ http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/dar1.html

External Links

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