Darwinism Essays (1611 words) - Charles Darwin,

Darwinism The question of how man evolved has been pondered since man first stepped foot on this planet. Many great philosophers and explorers have made attempts to try to answer this question. Charles Darwin was one of these people. Darwin led a full life of exploration, and during these adventures, he accumulated much information about evolution. He met many explorers that had various ideas of their own about how man evolved. In discussion with these people, he figured out if what they were telling him was fact or fiction. This helped him to formulate his own theory. Curiosity was aroused in Darwin at a very young age. He was one of those children that are always into things, trying to find out how things work. He was especially interested in the outdoors. He was a very smart child, but his father, Robert Waring Darwin II, didn't think so. Darwin had a youth unmarked by the slightest trace of genius. (Rachels,7). This didn't stop Darwin, though. He never lost this curiosity throughout the years. At the age of 18, he made a very important discovery about flustra, which is 1. That the ova of the Flustra possess organs of motion and 2. That the small black globular body hithero mistaken for the young Fucus lorious is in reality the ovum of the Pontobdella Muricata. (Rachels,7). In the early 1800's, a group of naturalists led by Captain FitzRoy, were planning an overseas trip, which they called the Voyage of the Beagle. They invited Darwin along, not as a naturalist, but as a helper. Through this trip, Darwin met many explorers that had their own theories about evolution. The first theory, which is the best known and most widely accepted one, is creationism. Creationism states that God created the heavens and the earth. This is the theory stated in the Bible, and many people believe this and preach this theory daily. Many people attend church at least once a week to engage in discussion about their beliefs. This isn't the only theory, though. James Hutton introduced a different approach to evolution. His theory, uniformitarianism, suggests that the prominent features of the earth's surface were produced by forces like wind, water, and weather over a long period of time. His theory was only partly true. It explains the question how fossils form, but it really doesn't thoroughly explain evolution. Another theory of evolution is catastrophism. This theory, brought about by Cuvier, says that the earth went through a great series of catastrophes. In his theory, Cuvier suggested that there was one big super continent. He said that the continents slowly drifted apart from one large continent by plate tectonics. Darwin had the chance to talk to all these people on his trip on the Beagle, and they gave him the idea to look into evolution. During Darwin's voyage on the Beagle, he stopped at the Galapagos Islands in September of 1835. This stop is very important in the formulation of his theory because he discovered that even though the islands were very close together, and each islands contained different species of animals, and each of the species was adapted to their specific environment. (Darwin, 20). Darwin didn't realize it at first, but he had found exactly what he was looking for in terms of how man evolved. 'Descent with Modification' was staring him in the face: the tortoises and finches were descendants of common ancestors, 'modified', as Darwin says, 'for different ends'. And so the popular story is that, confronting the inhabitants of the Galapagos, Darwin became an evolutionist. (Rachels, 21). This is only partly true, though. The finches were different species, but the tortoises were all variations of the species they belong to, but the thought about the finches was true. The upshot that is, although the visit to the Galapagos was, along with many other episodes on the Voyage of the Beagle, important in the undermining Darwin's faith in immutability, it was not critically important. (Darwin, 22). Darwin was very grateful to the Galapagos Islands because this is where he first became interested in evolution. This is also where he started the formulation of his theory, which is the theory of natural selection. The theory sees evolutionary changes as the