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Charles Darwin
Author of The Origin of Species and creator of the theory of evolution and the concept of natural selection
3,722 Questions
Lists and describe the indirect evidence to support theory of evolution?
Direct evidences of evolution include studying fruit flies. These insects breed quickly and have very short lifespans, so you can study genetic differences that occur relatively quickly over a short period of time. Indirect evidences of evolution include fossils left from prehistoric animals, as well as DNA samples.
Did Charles Darwin believe in both God and evolution?
Charles Darwin originally trained in theology, but it appears that his religious beliefs evolved over the course of his lifetime.
In Origin of Species, published in 1859, Charles Darwin identified himself as a believer in Christianity. However, by the time he had written his Autobiography, Darwin had become a professed agnostic, possibly even an atheist.
In his autobiography: "Whilst on board the Beagle I was quite orthodox, and I remember being heartily laughed at by several of the officers (though themselves orthodox) for quoting the Bible as an unanswerable authority on some point of morality.""... Another source of conviction in the existance [sic] of God ... follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capability of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look at a first cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a theist. This conclusion was strong in my mind about the time, as far I can remember, when I wrote the Origin of species; and it is since that time that it has very gradually with many fluctuations become weaker."
Evidence of Darwin's diminishing belief in Christianity: "Formerly I was led by feelings such as those just referred to, (although I do not think that the religious sentiment was ever strongly developed in me), to the firm conviction of the existence of God, and of the immortality of the soul.""I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation."
"But I was very unwilling to give up my belief ... Thus disbelief crept over me at very slow rate, but was at last complete."
"The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble to us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic."
Darwin also displayed a strong respect for the "Hindoos", "Mahomadans" and "Buddists", showing himself to be a man of moral integrity.
Answer 2:
It is a common myth (one often disproved) that Darwin rescinded his belief in evolution just before his death.
Charles Darwin shifted from belief in Hebrew based Christian doctrine to Stoick Philosophia doctrine. His theory of Evolution is based on the application of the philosophia belief in dialectics and metaphysics.
Philosophia doctrine can be traced directly to Aristotle, where its supposed that he obtained the building blocks of the doctrine from the Oracle of Delphi.
What group of people did not believe Charles Darwin's theory of evolution?
Fundamentalist Muslims are the largest group who reject Darwin's theory. Fundamentalist Christians, some Hindus, and other religious groups also reject it.
ID proponents who reject evolution tend to also be predominantly religiously motivated in their stance.
What theory states that the more recent species are changed descendants or earlier species?
The so called "theory" of evolution, though it has essentially been proven to be a fact.
Why would breeding dogs support Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection?
Selective breeding supports Darwins theory because, we adapt to our environments and believe whoever is compatible with breeding will pass on the trait, even if that means outside their own species.
Which type of natural selection favors the average individual in a population?
That would be the Stabilizing Selection where there will me not a lot of genetic variation. The curve of the population allele frequency would be quite thin with the extreme being in the middle.
I don't know mfer's need effin help round here!
What were the names of Charles Darwins children?
Charles Darwin had 10 children.
- William Erasmus Darwin (b. 1839)
- Anne Elizabeth Darwin (b. 1841)
- Mary Eleanor Darwin (b. 1842)
- Henrietta Emma Darwin (b. 1843)
- George Howard Darwin (b. 1845)
- Elizabeth Darwin (b. 1847)
- Francis Darwin (b. 1848)
- Leonard Darwin (b. 1850)
- Horace Darwin (b. 1851)
- Charles Waring Darwin (b. 1856)
How did the Victorian Age view Charles Darwin's theory?
The Victorian Age pretty much Didn't view Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution. He kept it a secret most of his life, because he Knew what effect it would have. Darwin, like most people of his time, believed in the standard religious statement that God created the Universe and made each species of animal separate and independent. Man was the pinacle of Creation, created in God's image. When he first began to realize what he was seeing, Darwin was shocked and confused. As the full implication of his discoveries dawned on him, Darwin realized that this information completely contradicted Church dogma. God could Not have personally created each separate species of animal, if the species was the result of choices and adaptations made by its forerunners. The contradiction was especially impossible with Man. If, instead of being personally created by God, in His image, he/she was Actually the product of millions of years of a process that not only produced him/her, but Also produced all the Other Great Apes, that meant that Man was Not special; Not unique, but simply another species in a long chain, on the way to something Else. Social change, however, and the work of other scientists made it safer for Darwin to make his Theory public as the Victorian Age went on. The book "On The Origin Of Species" was finally published in 1859, when he was 51 years old. Although some religious leaders condemned the work, some others championed it. Liberal churches welcomed the Theory as the explanation of God's mechanism in the creation of the Universe. The respect which such scientific luminaries as Thomas Huxley and Joseph Hooker commanded in their advocacy for the Theory managed to make it more a matter of Scientific debate than Religious dogma.
Which traits are the result of natural selection?
They are selected of course!
Traits that lead to greater survivability and reproductive success in individuals, on average and against the immediate environment, out reproduce their conspecifics leaving more progeny having these traits and changing the allele frequency over time in the populations gene pool.
Simple put and subject to the vagaries of existence in the real world.
How did Charles Darwin impact society?
Charles Darwin affected society by stirring up new ideas and changing how people viewed Gods creation theory. A lot of the 'upper class' people found his theories immoral and scary as it forced them to rethink there view of themselves as divine creations. Society had a huge impact on Charles, forcing him to hide his ideas for a long time due to the fear of rejection by society, once again. It took a lot of strength for him to come forward and he only had support from a couple of friends. Society had just as big an impact on him as he had on it. The main impact Darwin had was on religion was that his ideas showed that the world was a lot older than people were prepared to believe. He showed that over time creatures had slowly evolved and changedincluding the human species. This was a very new and scary concept at the time. His theory literally opened up a new world. Darwin continued to research and kept his work secret until he felt brave enough to publish it. His work affected the way people defined themselves and the world around them greatly. He changed the way research is done and opened up new pathways to discover the great wonders of the universe.
What was Darwin's role aboard the HMS Beagle?
He was the "naturalist" and "geologist". The Captain (FitzRoy) wanted the compaionship of a man of his class, and needed a geographer and oceanographer, and so took Darwin (as a self financing passenger - Darwin was not paid!) on board.
How evolution occurs via natural selection?
Evolution occurs via natural selection when certain traits become more favorable in a population over time. This is typically due to the environment or natural selection pressures in the population. Natural selection works by favoring individuals with traits that are better suited to the environment while those with less favorable traits may die off or be less likely to reproduce. Over time these favored traits become more common while unfavorable traits become less common. This process eventually leads to evolution as the population changes to adapt to its environment.
The three main components of natural selection are:
- Variation: Individuals within a population have different traits
- Inheritance: Traits are passed from generation to generation
- Differential Reproduction: Traits that are more favorable are more likely to be passed on
Natural selection is an ongoing process as the environment is constantly changing and influencing the traits of the population. It is important to note that natural selection is not a directed process and does not necessarily lead to a specific outcome. The result of natural selection is determined by the environment and the traits that are favored in the population.
How does natural variation affect evolution?
Natural selection (the driving force of evolution) is the selection of genetic variations by how they effect the organism's chances of survival or reproduction. If they diminish it's chances, the organism or it's immediate offspring die and the gene is gone. If the genetic variations increase it's chances, then it survives.
Without genetic variations there can be no evolution. Natural selection is the selection (by environmental pressures) of those variations.
How did Charles Darwin discovery change science?
Next year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. It is also the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The life and work of a great scientist and a seminal figure in intellectual history will, therefore, be the subject of intense interest and debate in the coming year. Such events as an outstanding Darwin exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London, a Darwin Anniversary Festival at Cambridge, and the reopening to public view of Darwin's home, Down House in Kent, merit enthusiastic interest and support.
But one aspect of these educational ventures is especially worth noting. Darwin is not merely a man of his time. The extent of his achievement gives him a plausible claim to be counted the greatest figure in this nation's history. And his ideas, while confirmed by mountains of evidence, remain startling in their implications for prescientific modes of thinking. They are consequently an enduring target for movements that disdain critical inquiry and the life of the mind. In 2009 the celebration of Darwin has a value beyond a 19th-century scientist's findings about the natural world. The communication of Darwin's ideas is integral to a culture that values learning over superstition and dogmatism.
The publication of On the Origin of Species on November 24, 1859, represented - in the words of Ernst Mayr, the biologist - "perhaps the greatest intellectual revolution experienced by mankind". The book's importance lay in Darwin's not only adducing the fact of evolution but also in discovering its main mechanism. This was natural selection, the process by which small variations operating over millions of generations produce new varieties and new species.
The ideas formulated in Darwin's writings are not merely a branch of science. They are the keystone of numerous areas of inquiry. Theodosius Dobzhansky, the geneticist, encapsulated Darwin's importance when he observed: "Nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution." When, in 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson unravelled the structure of DNA - among the most important scientific discoveries of the last century - they demonstrated the power of Darwin's insights. Here were the units of inheritance that cause evolution, and that provide the link between all living organisms.
Despite the overwhelming evidence for evolution, Darwin's ideas remain unsettling to some, because they demonstrate that natural processes are a sufficient explanation for the development of life on Earth. Mainstream religious denominations have no difficulty accepting Darwin's discoveries. But a minority, across faiths, aim to present sacred creation myths (sometimes ineffectually disguised under the label "Intelligent Design") as if they were scientific truth. Extraordinarily, Sarah Palin, the defeated US Republican vice-presidential nominee, is on record as believing that biblical Creationism should be taught in science education alongside evolution.
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Slow change over time in a species is a way to define?
It is called speciation.
Speciation can happen through adaptation, which is a change in an organisms genetic code. If adaptation has gone on long enough so that the two organisms can no longer produce offspring, then speciation has occurred.
Scientific alternatives to Darwin's theory of evolution?
Darwin's original theory was formulated over 150 years ago. The modern theory of evolution, while still basically the same as Darwin's, is also significantly different. In either case, there is no scientific alternative to the origin of biodiversity.
This is equivalent to how there is no scientific alternative to Atomic Theory.
Process by which evolution occurs?
The process of evolution is in it's definition.
Evolution is the change in allele frequency over time in a population of organisms.
Organisms are selected based on their reproductive success and this changes the alleles in the populations gene pool over time and this is the process of evolution. Change over time. That simple.
What is the difference between natural selection and origin of species?
Natural selection is the process by which organisms that are better adapted to their environment tend to survive and reproduce more successfully, leading to the evolution of a population. The origin of species refers to the process by which new species arise through mechanisms such as natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow. In other words, natural selection is one of the mechanisms that can drive the origin of new species.
When did Darwin discover evolution?
Darwin was intensively studying evolution during a five year period of time on the Beagle. However, he was studying evolution before and after this journey. No-one's really sure when he started studying his theory.
How do vestigial structures support the theory of evolution?
It shows that the organism once had a fully functioning organ/structure, but due to some kind of environmental pressure, that organ was no longer beneficial. Because it was no longer beneficial, it was actually detrimental, because the organism required energy to grow these organs, now wasted energy.
Evolution's mechanism is natural selection. This organ is now being selected against, organisms that grew smaller ones now had an advantage over ones with larger ones. So over time, the average size of that organ within the population will shrink, and it will be considered vestigial when it no longer serves its original function.
There's a reason why vestigial organs do not disappear completely, and that's because when the organ is so small and the organism is not wasting as much energy to grow it, it is no longer being selected against. Or in some cases the vestigial organ does have a tiny bit of use and is now beneficial.
What are the flaws of Darwin's theory of evolution?
advantages: letting everyone know that all animals and beings can evolute. without Darwin's theory we would never know that our ancestors were Apes. this is thanks to Darwin and the Finches in his Experiment.
disadvantages:Darwin suffered very bad seasickness. he also overworked himself. lots of strong religious people were against him because of his theory. he also killed lots of animals (especially finches and insects) to do his experiment and to prove he is right.
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What scientific hobbies did Charles Darwin have?
All I know is that he love to collect species and look at their physical characteristic so that he could come up with a more describable way of classification of each and every living species on earth. Also he look at how species differ from the other and this is where he came up the theory that species evolve from the same ancestors and keeps on evolving as time changes.
