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Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

1882 - 1809

Charles Darwin, the author of the theory of organic evolution by means of natural selection, was born in (Shrewsbury) in England on February 2, 1809 (the same day Abraham Lincoln was born) and at sixteen he entered the University of Edinburgh to study medicine, but he found that medicine and anatomy are boring subjects, and therefore He moved to Cambridge University to study theology. However, he found that physical activities such as riding horses and hunting are more appropriate than studying, and for this he persuaded one of the professors at the university to nominate him as a natural researcher in the expedition that was carried out by the ship (Beagle). His father first opposed this job because he felt that this trip would be preventing his son from settling down and studying diligently, but fortunately the father finally agreed that this voyage proved to be one of the most useful ocean voyages in the history of science.

The steamer set sail in 1831, and Darwin was twenty-two years old at the time. The ship circled the world in a period of five years. It touched the shores of South America, then headed to the Pacific Ocean and some of its islands, then some islands of the Indian Ocean, then the South Atlantic Ocean.

During that trip, Darwin saw many natural marvels, visited primitive tribes, discovered many fossils, and observed the life of plant and animal species. Moreover, he recorded his notes about everything he saw, and these notes were the basis for his future works.

Darwin returned to the homeland in 1836, and in the next twenty years he published a series of books that caused him a lot of fame as one of the great biologists in England. He believed that animal and plant species were not fixed, but they evolved through geological ages. Then he began after reading one of the articles of the scientist Thomas Malthus. His idea is about the struggle for survival and natural selection. After several observations and information support his idea, he collected and then published his famous book (The Origin of Species by Natural Selection) or (Survival of Strains in the Struggle for Life).

There were arguments about these ideas when a new book (The Fall of Man and Selection for Sex) presented the idea that man had descended from ape-like creatures. This book added fuel to the ongoing polemical battles.

But Darwin himself did not participate in these polemical battles, because his health had deteriorated when he returned from the trip, in addition to the fact that the supporters of Darwin's theory found an enthusiastic defender in the person of Thomas Huxley, who was a skilled debater and defender of Darwin's theories. Thus, scientists accepted the validity of Darwin's theories before his death in 1882.

Darwin was the founder of the idea of ​​the evolution of species, and no one led to this theory before him, and Darwin's feat is that he not only provided a description of the mechanics of natural selection, but also that he presented a large amount of convincing practical evidence to support his hypotheses.

It is worth noting that we say: Darwin's theory was formulated without relying on the theory of heredity or on any knowledge of it. In the days of Darwin, no one knew anything about the way in which some characteristics were transmitted from one generation to the next. Although Gregor Mendel was working on the law of heredity at the same time that Darwin was writing his books, Mendel's works that complemented Darwin's were not Known until 1900 AD, the year Darwin's theories were known and published.

Darwin's ideas had influences on religious thinking as well, as many Christian clerics believed that accepting Darwin's principles undermined the principles of religion. Their fears were justified, although it is clear that other important factors played an important role in the decline of religious thinking. Even on the mundane level, Darwin's theory has caused a great change in the way human beings think about the world. The human race no longer occupies the main place in the natural plans as it was in the past. We must now consider ourselves one of the many species that live on the face of the earth, and we must We assume the possibility of losing this privileged position one day.