Difference between revisions of "Charles Darwin"

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[[Image:darwin.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Charles Darwin]]
 
[[Image:darwin.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Charles Darwin]]
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'''Charles Robert Darwin''' (12 February 1809 - 19 April 1883) was a famous naturalist born in England. He is best known for the [[Theory of Evolution]] by Natural Selection which has since been almost universally accepted by secular scientists as the foundation of modern biology. 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 of evolution in particular, he was regarded as an expert on barnacles, as well as being credited with discovering how coral [[atoll]]s were formed.
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'''Charles Robert Darwin''' (12 February 1809 - 19 April 1883) was a famous naturalist born in England. He is best known for the the [[Theory of Evolution]] by Natural Selection which has since been almost universally accepted by secular scientists as the foundation of modern biology. 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 of evolution in particular, he was regarded as an expert on barnacles, as well as being credited with discovering how coral [[atoll]]s were formed.
 
==General Biography==
 
==General Biography==
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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, 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 he 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 he graduated from Christ's College at Cambridge with a BA degree in the classics and theology. On December 27 of the same year he departed on the ''HMS Beagle'' for a five year voyage of exploration. The ''Beagle'' returned to English shores on October 2 1836. In 1837, 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. However, he 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 he produced what is known today as an ''essay'' of the same theory more developed but he still chose not to publish. Finally, in 1859, Darwin publishes his famous theory about how life may have been produced without any aid from a Divine Creator, he titles 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 ''Descent of Man.''
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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, 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 he 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 he graduated from Christ's College at Cambridge with a BA degree in the classics and theology. On December 27 of the same year he departed on the ''HMS Beagle'' for a five year voyage of exploration. The ''Beagle'' returned to English shores on October 2 1836. In 1837, 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 prodcued nature and eventually mankind. However, he originally based the idea of human evolution on a racist assumption<ref>Milton, Richard ''Shatttering 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 he produced what is known today as an ''essay'' of the same theory more developed but he still chose not to publish. Finally, in 1859, Darwin publishes his famous theory about how life may have been produced without any aid from a Divine Creator, he titles 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 ''Descent of Man.''
  
 
==Religious Views==
 
==Religious Views==
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[[Image:CharlesDarwin.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Charles Darwin in 1880 at the age of 71.]]
 
[[Image:CharlesDarwin.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Charles Darwin in 1880 at the age of 71.]]
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Charles Darwin most likely abandoned Christianity as a young adult when he disappointed his father by refusing to become a minister.  In his autobiography, written during the last six years of his life, Darwin claimed to be an Agnostic in the strict context of biological First Cause:
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Charles Darwin likely abandoned Christianity as a student when he disappointed his father by refusing to become a minister.  As an adult he was an [[agnostic]]<ref>http://www.religioustolerance.org/agnostic.htm</ref>. In 1859 (at the age of fifty) Darwin published his famous book ''The Origin of Species''. "In order not to hurt the feelings of his friends and wife, Darwin often used deistic language in his publications" <ref>ibid. 1991:75.</ref>. According to Darwin the "manifestly false history of the world" <ref>ibid. Barlow 1958:85.</ref> as recorded in the Old Testament and New Testament miracles led him to reject Biblical veracity <ref>ibid. Barlow 1958:85-87.</ref>. 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" <ref>Browne, Janet  ''Charles Darwin The Power of Place'' 2002:341</ref>. When he died in 1882 at the age of seventy-three, Darwin was buried at Westminster Abbey next to Sir [[Isaac Newton]].
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"The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic" <ref>Barlow, Nora (editor) ''Autobiography of Charles Darwin'' 1958:94</ref>
 
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Charles Darwin writing in his private "M" notebook of 1838: "To avoid stating 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" <ref>Barrett, Paul H. ''Darwin on Man'' 1974:276</ref>
 
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Harvard Professor Ernst Mayr: "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)" <ref>''American Scientist'' May 1977:323</ref>
 
  
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However, the [[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] states the following:
 
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{{cquote|In 1885, the Duke of Argyll recounted a conversation he had had with Charles Darwin the year before Darwin's death:
 
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In the course of that conversation I said to Mr. Darwin, with reference to some of his own remarkable works on the Fertilisation of [[Orchid]]s, and upon The [[Earthworm]]s, 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] <ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/teleological-arguments/notes.html</ref>}}
 
  
 
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. <ref>http://www.carm.org/evo_questions/deathbed.htm</ref>
 
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. <ref>http://www.carm.org/evo_questions/deathbed.htm</ref>
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== Darwin's Sickness and Controversy Regarding His Sickness ==
 
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For most of his adult life Darwin suffered from very poor health.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i4/darwins_illness.asp</ref> The 1992 ''New Encyclopedia Britannica '' stated that Darwin's illness was [[psychogenic]] in origin (A psychogenic illness is one that originates in the mind or in mental condition). <ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i4/darwins_illness.asp</ref> A 1997 journal article states that the "variable intensity of symptoms and chronic, prolonged course without physical deterioration also indicate that his illness was psychiatric." <ref>''Charles Darwin and Panic Disorder''" by Thomas J. Barloon, MD and Russel Noyes, Jr., January 8, 1997 [[Journal of the American Medical Association]]</ref>
 
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According to medical journals Darwin suffered the following symptoms: palpitations, shortness of breathe ("air fatigues" ), light headedness ("head swimming" ), trembling, crying, dying sensations, abdominal distress, and depersonalization ("treading on air and vision"), nausea, severe vomiting, flatulence, alimentary canal pain, various forms of eruption of the skin, and nervous exhaustion. <ref>"The Illness of Charles Darwin", William B. Bean, September 1978, American Journal of Medicine and "''Charles Darwin and Panic Disorder''" by Thomas J. Barloon, MD and Russel Noyes, Jr., January 8, 1997 [[Journal of the American Medical Association]]</ref>
 
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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. <ref>http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/content/c5la8dhfh8v7tbx8/</ref><ref>http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia/Encyclopedia/20hist06.htm</ref>
 
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Dr. Colp's work in relation to Darwin's illness is highly respected in the medical community and an article in the [[Journal of the American Medical Association]] stated regarding Colp's work the following: "His painstaking work in seeking out every possible source comes close to yielding the complete biography of an invalid's illness."<ref>''Charles Darwin and Panic Disorder''" by Thomas J. Barloon, MD and Russel Noyes, Jr., January 8, 1997 [[Journal of the American Medical Association]]</ref>  In a letter to the editor in the April 23/30 1997 edition of the [[Journal of the American Medical Association]] Dr. Colp wrote the following:  "I believe that Darwin's illness consisted of panic disorder (without agoraphobia), psychosomatic skin disorder, and possibly Chagras disease of the stomach." Dr. Colp also noted that Darwin had facial eczema that often was caused by controversies over his evolutionist ideas. In regards to the possible Chagas disease Dr. Colp states: "The disorder was first active and then became inactive, permanently injuring the parasympathetic nerves of his stomach and making it more sensitive to sympathetic stimulation and hence more sensitive to the "psychosomatic impact of his anxieties." An organic impairment best explains the lifelong chronicity of many of his abdominal complaints". 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".<ref>"The Illness of Charles Darwin", William B. Bean, September 1978, American Journal of Medicine</ref>
 
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Given Darwin's aforementioned statement to the Duke of Argyll a year before his death and Darwin's [[psychomatic]] or [[psychobiological]] illness various [[Creationism|creationists]] have stated that Darwin's illness was the result of guilt and/or fear. <ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i4/darwins_illness.asp</ref><ref>http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia/Encyclopedia/20hist06.htm</ref>
 
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== Darwin's Reaction to Criticism of His Work ==
 
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Darwin closely followed society's reaction to his evolutionary ideas.  In 2002, [[Richard Milner]] wrote an article entitled [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000B62D6-7E63-1D7E-90FB809EC5880000# "Putting Darwin in his Place"] and stated that Darwin ''"clipped, cataloged 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..."''  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''".  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..." ''
 
  
 
==References==
 
==References==

Revision as of 06:46, July 3, 2007

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 - 19 April 1883) was a famous naturalist born in England. He is best known for the the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection which has since been almost universally accepted by secular scientists as the foundation of modern biology. 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 of evolution in particular, he was regarded as an expert on barnacles, as well as being credited with discovering how coral atolls were formed.

General Biography

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, 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 he 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 he graduated from Christ's College at Cambridge with a BA degree in the classics and theology. On December 27 of the same year he departed on the HMS Beagle for a five year voyage of exploration. The Beagle returned to English shores on October 2 1836. In 1837, Darwin drew his now famous depiction of common ancestry in the form of a branching tree [1]. The following year he discovered the concept of natural selection. Darwin insists that naturally occurring phenomena and factors working together in blind tandem have prodcued nature and eventually mankind. However, he originally based the idea of human evolution on a racist assumption[2], [after God was rejected as Creator], made in the late 1830s[3], that Fuegians (natives of Tierra del Fuego) resembled primates that he had observed in the London zoo[4]. In 1842 he wrote out a sketch of his theory but did not publish it. Again, in 1844 he produced what is known today as an essay of the same theory more developed but he still chose not to publish. Finally, in 1859, Darwin publishes his famous theory about how life may have been produced without any aid from a Divine Creator, he titles 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 Descent of Man.

Religious Views

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. As an adult he was an agnostic[5]. In 1859 (at the age of fifty) Darwin published his famous book The Origin of Species. "In order not to hurt the feelings of his friends and wife, Darwin often used deistic language in his publications" [6]. According to Darwin the "manifestly false history of the world" [7] as recorded in the Old Testament and New Testament miracles led him to reject Biblical veracity [8]. 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" [9]. When he died in 1882 at the age of seventy-three, Darwin was buried at Westminster Abbey next to Sir Isaac Newton.


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. [10]

References

  1. ↑ Charles Darwin, Transmutation Notebook B 1837:36
  2. ↑ Milton, Richard Shatttering the Myths of Darwinism 1997:186,287 says "Darwin [was] openly racist"
  3. ↑ Barlow, Nora (editor) The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1958:130
  4. ↑ Larson, Edward J. Evolution: The Remarkable History Of A Scientific Theory 2004:66,67
  5. ↑ http://www.religioustolerance.org/agnostic.htm
  6. ↑ ibid. 1991:75.
  7. ↑ ibid. Barlow 1958:85.
  8. ↑ ibid. Barlow 1958:85-87.
  9. ↑ Browne, Janet Charles Darwin The Power of Place 2002:341
  10. ↑ http://www.carm.org/evo_questions/deathbed.htm
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