DARWINIAN REVOLUTION

Who is Charles
Darwin?
 Charles Robert Darwin
 Born in England at
February 12, 1809
 Naturalist, who
developed the theory
of evolution by natural
selection
 Died at the age 73 yrs
old, April 19 1882
Darwin’s Life

 Influenced by his Grandfather Erasmus

Darwin through the book Zoonomia a
controversial idea which stated that one
species could evolve into another .
 Darwin secured a place at Edinburgh
University to study medicine.
 Abandoned being a doctor due to
brutal techniques of surgery
 Considered a career in the church
 In 1831, Sailed around the world, and traveled for 5 years
 Lived in the boat named HMS Beagle
 Arrived at Galapagos Islands off coast Ecuador
Darwin at Galapagos
Islands

 He studied finches, tortoises and

mockingbirds there
 Darwin did have a eureka moment but
accumulated a steady amount of
observations
Darwin drafts his first account of evolution

 Evolution occurred by a process he called 'Natural Selection’.

 Natural Selection
 process that results in the adaptation of an organism to its environment by
means of selectively reproducing changes in its genotype, or genetic
constitution.
 He was hesitant due to his idea contradicted the Christian world view and
his grandfather had been ostracized for writing about transmutation and
he feared the same fate.
1858 A letter compelled him to go public

 Darwin had written a quarter of a million words on evolution and published

none
 Alfred Russel Wallace was the one who compelled him inspired by Beagle
voyage, he set off to travel and arrived at a theory of Natural Selection
and wanted Darwin’s advice on how to publish it.
 Darwin then realized if he didn’t go public someone would take credit for
it.
Darwin and Wallace
rewrite the theory of
evolution
 Presented to Britain's
leading Natural History
body, the Linnean Society
 Darwin finally went public
with his groundbreaking
theory of evolution by
natural selection, while
making sure that Wallace
received some credit.
 Darwin missed the
presentation due to his son
dying at age of 18 months
because of scarlet fever
November 1859

 Darwin publishes 'On the Origin of Species by Means

of Natural Selection’
 He draw fierce criticism from the Church, and from
some parts of the press. Due to the implication that
human beings were descended from apes.
 One general law, leading to the advancement of all
organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the
strongest live and the weakest die. “Charles Darwin,
from 'On the Origin of Species’”
Darwin publishes 'The
Descent of Man'

 In 1871, another book

was published entitled
‘The Descent of Man’
 The book was another
challenge to Christian
orthodoxy.
 Is a book which
applies evolutionary the
ory to human evolution,
and details his theory
of sexual selection, a
form of biological
adaptation distinct from,
yet interconnected with,
natural selection.
Darwinian Revolution

 Still the Darwinian revolution didnt occur unti

128 years after his death
 It began way before 16th century with the
heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus
but culminated by the discoveries of Galileo
Galilei and Isaac Newton at 17th century
 He also demonstrated that the origin and
complexity of living beings can be
explained by natural processes, without the
intervention of a supernatural being.
 The controversy between evolutionists and
creationists still persists.