Charles Darwin's Dangerous Idea

Charles Darwin once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” In PBS’s Documentary Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, this is exactly what naturalist Charles Robert Darwin thought. Charles Darwin was born February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England to Dr. R. W. Darwin and Susanna Darwin, he was the second youngest of six children. Mr. Darwin grew up in a fairly wealthy family who loved nature, so as a child, it was customary for him to be involved in the great outdoors and all that it exhibits. It came to no surprise that when Darwin was given the option to sail to the Galapagos Island he took it on, wanting to do some research on the animals that

He found that some finch have different shaped beaks used for different ways of eating. He then started to wonder how one species of bird could have branched out and “evolved” into many different birds.

Darwin’s thought was that the very first species of finch flew over each of the Galapagos Islands and somehow adapted to the different climates and environments. On these different islands the bird reproduced so that they would look like the parent bird but adapted to the environment, those that didn’t adapt accordingly died out, he called this discovery Natural Selection. This was when Charles Darwin starting thinking that every creature must have a common ancestor.

With this thought in mind, Darwin started questioning if it truly was God who evolved these finch or if it was something bigger. It was then that he published his book Origin of Species announcing his findings and beliefs. His book was about natural selection and how all organisms descended from a common ancestor. It was like every organism belonged on the same tree of life but each different species has its own branch. It was after Darwin published his book that he was shunned and looked down upon for not believing that it was God who evolved these animals because back in the 1800s everyone believed in God and that he was responsible for the creation of

One of his daughters, Anne Darwin, died of tuberculosis at age 10. We as humans can adapt pretty easily to any climate, so it came with great shock why Anne contracted this retched disease and died. It just shows that the weakest die out and the strongest will live, proving Natural Selection.

To add to it, Professor Owen, made Darwin sound like such an awful and absurd person for no longer believing that it was God who changed these creatures over time. Quoting, “Natural selection is an ingenious theory for denying the working, and therefore the existence, of the Creator.” Professor Owen thought that the human brain was so unique compared to other mammals that it didn’t seem possible that they could have been related at all. So not only were people shunning Darwin for his theory on Evolution, they were using their own knowledge to prove him