Charles Darwin in the Origin of Species

            Charles Darwin was a British naturalist, born the same day Abraham Lincoln was born; February 12, 1809. He was son of Robert Waring Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood, the fifth of their children, and their second son.

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             Charles Darwin, in 1831, he went on a British science expedition all around the world. He found in South America, fossils of extinct animals that had very similar characteristics to some of present day animals. The same discoveries happened in the Galapagos Island. He studied animals and plants from wherever he went. When he returned to London, 5 years later in 1836, he came up with 4 important theories: "one, evolution did occur; two, evolutionary change was gradual, requiring thousands to millions of years; three, the primary mechanism for evolution was a process called natural selection; and four, the millions of species alive today arose from a single original life form through a branching process called speciation."*

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             Darwin became famous for his theory of natural selection and the theory of evolution. According to a website I found, "Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's ability to adapt to its environment."* He published a book with this theories called, The Origin of Species.


             Some of the cultural issues that Darwin had was, that people said that with his theory he was "killing God." Still in present day, people think this theory contradicts what the Bible said, and what the theory of Divine Creation states. 


            Darwin had anguish on developing his theory because he knew there was another scientist who was developing the same idea and if the other scientist published it first, no credit was given to Darwin.


            This great naturalist after developing his idea, he kept on writing on botany, zoology, and geology until 1882, the date of his death. His remains are buried in Westminister Abbey.


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