Charles Darwin’s ‘The Origin of Species’, first published in 1859, was one of the most influential works of the last Millennium. It is also one of the most controversial works ever produced. Hence it becomes imperative to understand the politics behind those controversies and most importantly the theory behind those controversies, which had a profound influence on the earth science and modern thought in general.
Darwin, at the age of 22, with a recommendation he got from John Henslow, was taken aboard the English survey ship HMS Beagle, as an unpaid naturalist, after his graduation from Cambridge. During his voyage, Darwin came across a wide variety of fossils and living organisms, which had a profound influence on him and laid the foundation stone for his later investigations. The observations Darwin made gave support to the theory of evolution, contrary to creation.
Shortly after his return home, Darwin, with all the necessary data collected during his voyage, developed his theory of evolution by natural selection, in an unpublished paper circulated among his close friends. In fact, Darwin as very hesitant to publish his findings, fearing his work would stir religious convulsions.
Darwin’s ideas were stormingly revolutionary for his time, as many geologists then adhered to the catastrophist theory. According to the catastrophists, all form of life on earth are wiped away regularly by catastrophes, resulting in the beginning of civilization right from the start, again and again, with Noah’s flood being the most recent catastrophe, where all life forms were wiped away by the flood, except for those species preserved in the arc. The catastrophists held the view that all species are immutable and are not shaped by time. Each species was believed to be created separately by the divine spirit himself and hence were believed to remain forever unchanged.
The origin of species on other hand is based entirely on continual change, making change an intrinsic part of nature itself. Each and every species of both plant and animals, in Darwin’s view, have to struggle for their existence as the resources available are limited, making competition inevitable and resulting in the struggle for survival. In animals the favourable characteristics or traits are preserved during reproduction. Darwin’s findings have also added additional support to the materialistic argument – the earth itself is not static, but evolving.
“Natural selection” as defined by Darwin is “the preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations”. Organisms with favourable variations are more likely to survive than their weaker counterparts, however minute in proportion the variation may be. It should be understood that “natural selection” is a natural phenomenon and nothing living in the natural world exists independently of it. Darwin even went on to the extent of suggesting that it is possible for all related organisms to have descended from a common ancestor.
Darwin’s findings met with severe criticism from the clergy and other religious thinkers. Natural selection rejects the role of the creator by discarding creation and by confirming evolution, while answering the question of man’s origin. This very fact was way too much for the clergy and hence, refusing to tolerate it, they waged an intense war of words against Darwin and his findings. With the scientific community things however were different. Darwin managed to accumulate a tremendous amount of material in support of his theory, which eventually made it difficult for the scientific community to not accept his theory of evolution.
The materialistic approach of Darwin also gained him the admiration of two great thinkers, who where also his contemporaries – Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. “Darwin, whom I am just now reading, is splendid”, remarked Engels in one of his letters to Marx, and Marx, who later read the origin of species, also felt more or less the same admiration for Darwin. In fact Marx even sent Darwin a copy of his famous book – Capital.
The basic structure upon which Darwin’s theory rests holds good even today, as it has been justly confirmed by the modern day scientists. The theory however has undergone a series of developments to incorporate modern day findings made in the field of biology, genetics and other fields. The basic ideas underpinning ‘The Origin of Species’ remain unshaken and the discovery of the three-dimensional structure of DNA – the molecules that contain the hereditary information of almost all living organisms – has only confirmed Darwin’s findings. Genetics now could begin to quantitatively determine, for example, the genetic changes that occur during the formation of new species. Darwin, through his findings, has made it clear that no species is immutable; all have evolved, and are continuing to evolve.
Nature, as we see today, could only have evolved by means of natural selection and hence it becomes impossible to understand life fully by isolating it from natural selection. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Darwin also made it possible for the general public to understand his path breaking works by making his works more readable and less technical.
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