Understanding Charles Darwin

As I have never read anything by Darwin before, I was a little bit surprised to find that this was fairly easy to understand and that my view of Darwin (in terms of what I thought he was proposing) has changed.

In high school, and even before, every time I heard Darwin's name mentioned, I immediately associated him with evolution. Due to this association I also assumed that he did not believe in "God" and only believed in science. (fine by me either way). After reading this excerpt from The Origin of Species I have come to believe that Darwin wasn't actually proposing that evolution took the place of "God," but that it is actually an act of "God:"

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being, destroyed (1545)"


Darwin's beliefs are not, however, any of my concern. Because of this "realization," I am more interested in why Darwin's theories were, and still are, fought so hard.

There's the church vs. science debate, which I find confusing. I guess because heavenly creations are supposed to be perfect and therefore animals, plants, and humans don't need evolution. I think Darwin considered this debate himself because he incorporated a quote from a friend stating that "he has gradually learnt to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms..." (1542).

I also wonder if part of society opposed Darwin on principle. He states that "the chief cause of our natural unwillingness to admit that one species has given birth to clear and distinct species, is that we are always slow in admitting great changes of which we do not see the steps" (1542). Darwin is stating society's flaws. Maybe they just didn't want to be told what they could or could not observe. However, it's interesting to note that Darwin uses words like "we," implying that he includes himself into society. I think this is his way of carefully explaining his argument as to not separate his views too much from everyone else.

I also think this was met with opposition because of Darwin's promise for the future. He wrote "In the future I see open fields for far more important researches....Much light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history" (1544). I think people realized that this conversation will not go away until Darwin's theories are proved or disproved. Clearly, they were right. We still speak of Darwin today in science classes and, while I'm not biological expert, I believe scientists are still questioning and trying to prove evolution. The fear that one day evolution could be proved, (a wreck to religion (?)), is another reason why his work was met with so much opposition.


(Below a funny cartoon 1st published in Harper's Weekly in 1871)

[Victorian literature]