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The periods of human development
Theory of evolution
Theory of evolution
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Numerous studies have been conducted on where humans evolved from and how they have developed over the years. Some people believe in the theory of evolution and others believe in the theory developed in religion. The researcher is interested in this topic because this is the theory of how human’s evolved over time. This theory marks where humans first started from, to now and the phenomena continues today. Another reason is because there are so many different facts and evidence found throughout the years to prove that humans have evolved over the years into the people they are today. Charles Darwin is not the founder of evolution, but with help from history and these scientists, Thomas Henry Huxley, Alfred Wallace and John Gould, he was able to develop the theory of evolution. These scientists contributed a huge amount to Charles research and helped him come up with the conclusion of where humans evolved.
II. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution took years and years of research. Throughout these years he found different people who were also interested in this phenomena and had them join him in the study. Before Charles conducted his research he looked back in time to other scientists who wrote about this theory. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, believed there were natural laws in how the world came to be. “He believed that there were “higher” species and also “lower” species, and the lower ones gave rise to the higher” (Rosenberger 3). He believed against the usual myths about how the universe came to be and had similar ideas to Darwin. In 1831, Charles was asked by Capt. Robert Fitz-Roy to set sail on the H. M. S. Beagle, which sailed around the world. “Charles was to record information about the geology,...
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...at evolutionary change was not just a myth; it was possible. This study opened the door for other species to be studied and see if they evolved over time and how much they have evolved. This helped Darwin see evolution by comparing the living animal species. Darwin also used his children as research in his theory of evolution. He studied his children to see how nature gave way to nurture (Rosenberger v2-3). He had ten children, so he was able to study all of them and compare the results he obtained to one another. Through this study he learned that some human behaviors were adaptive and other human behaviors were learned and shared by culture. In 1851, he lost one of his daughters, and was able to observe that some people are able to cope and others cannot. This opened the door to many more characteristics that were the heart of the principle in natural selection.
Charles Darwin, the Father of Evolution, was a British scientist who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution, transforming the thinking of the entire world about the living things around us (Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)). After working on his theory for nearly 20 years, he published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859. As soon as the book was released, the controversy began with each sides gaining followers until the climax on July 10, 1925. The idea that animals could “evolve” and change into new species, including humans, was one that challenged not only how people thought about the natural world, but challenged the story of the creation from the Bible itself. Even though Darwin himself never said that humans “evolved” from apes, everyone took it as a logical extension of his new theory. It went against the idea of argument for design that had unified theology and science for decades (Moran 5). This new threat to Christianity and the social culture of the time was one that would transform state laws on their educational curriculum.
At Christ’s College, Darwin had a professor named John Stevens Henslow who in time became his mentor. After Darwin graduated Christ’s College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1831, Henslow recommended him for a naturalist’s position aboard the HMS Beagle.The HMS Beagle was a ship that was to take a five year long trip around the world. Charles Darwin took the opportunity knowing that the up close experience with collecting natural specimen would teach and interest him greatly. Darwin uncovered many unknown thoughts about the specimens he discovered during his journey (Price, 2006). Other naturalists believed that all species either came into being at the start of the world, or were created over the course of natural history. Darwin however, noticed similarities among species all over the globe...
Darwin did not come up with his theory out of nowhere. Like anyone else who has made discoveries, he was influenced by others. For quite a long time before Darwin, people didn't look beyond the Biblical creation story. Such things as fossils, primitive stone tools and visible layers of rock were said to have been placed on earth by God. There wasn't a great deal of work done on what we now call evolution, until the age of exploration began.
However, it was Darwin that formalized the theory, and presented the most convincing case for the theory. Charles Darwin was born on the 12th of February 1809 (incidentally, the same day and year as Abraham Lincoln), in Shrewsbury, England. He had a privileged upbringing, and enjoyed science - particularly biology. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1831, and on December the 27th of that year, he set off for a five-year journey aboard the Beagle, a ship bound for South America. His voyage was long and eventful, including once, in Chile, encountering both an earthquake and a tidal wave in a single day!
Anyone with even a moderate background in science has heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwin’s ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwin’s book remains one of the most influential ever written.
Keith Henson a writer in evolutionary psychology once said that “Evolution acts slowly. Our psychological characteristics today are those that promoted reproductive success in the ancestral environment.” Evolution was first introduced by a naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin. Darwin had written an autobiography, at the age of 50, On the Origin of Species (1859) explaining how species evolve through time by natural selection; this theory became known as Darwinism. “Verlyn Klinkenborg, who writes editorials and vignettes on science and nature for the “New York Times”” (Muller 706) questions Darwin’s theory in one of his essays he wrote called Darwin at 200: The Ongoing Force of His Unconventional Idea. Both articles talk about the theory of Darwinism, but the authors’ use different writing techniques and were written in different time periods. Darwin himself writes to inform us on what the theory is, where as Klinkenborg goes on to explain why Darwinism is just a theory. Today, evolution is still a very controversial topic among many. It comes up in several topics that are discussed everyday such as in politics, religion and education.
Darwin discovered natural selection. This proclaims that all living beings did not arise, as they are, out of thin air. Each had adapted to their environment over time, allowing nature to choose those who were most fit for survival. Unfortunately, he failed to realize the error in the commonly held concept of heredity. This was that each trait from the parents was mixed together when generating offspring—similar to the process of mixing paint, as opposed to the correct analogy of mixing a deck of cards. Favorable traits would therefore never be properly passed down, revealing Darwin’s blunder.
Charles Darwin published his On the Origin of Species in 1859. By 1870, Darwin’s theory of evolution was widely accepted as fact (van Wyhe, n.d.). This was no easy feat, Darwin was able to provide ample evidence from his voyage aboard the HMS Beagle, Darwin successfully implanted an idea. That idea took root and expanded into a profound science. The spread of ideas is at the very heart of civilization.
Evolution is the reason for many different species and their existence. Evolution proves that there is much more to the world than the human can see. Charles Darwin had looked into the eye of the storm, and found something revolutionary. His research has changed and reshaped science in it’s own very existence; changing how scientists see their works. Charles created a new way of thinking, and proven that there is always an alternate reason why something is the way it is, and how it became that way, not to mention he constructed against religion that proves itself to be wrong. Everything has a reason, and evolution has made that reason clear to us, through Darwin’s works.”Charles Darwin is best known for his work as a naturalist, developing a theory of evolution to explain biological change.”
Charles Darwin was a scientist from the United Kingdom who was a naturalist and geologist in the early 1800s. Although, he is best known for his role in the evolution theory. Darwin decided to take part in a five-year voyage in 1831, called the Beagle, to make naval charts of South America. At the beginning of the expedition Darwin was just a young graduate, at the age of twenty-two, with only eagerness to be able to be a part of the opportunity. He had no high expectations to find the rare discoveries that he had found during his time on land on the far off continent. By the end of the excursion, Darwin had made a name for himself as a geologist and fossil collector after his journal was published, later titled The Voyage of the Beagle. His writing got him a lot of attention from multiple scientists around the world.
The impact these men had on religious thought was tremendous. Some of them are the starting points for many of the controversies existing today. Of all the scientists, historians, and philosophers in the nineteenth century, the most influential and controversial was Charles Darwin. Born in 1809, Charles Darwin always had an interest in the nature, so he chose to study botany in college. His strengths in botany led him to become the naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle. On a trip to South America, he and the rest of the crew visited the near by Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was there he noticed many different variations of the same general plants and birdshe saw previously in South America. He also observed ancient fossils of extinct organisms that closely resembled modern organisms. By 1859, all of these observations inspired him to write down his theories. He wanted to explain how evolution had occurred through a process called natural selection. In his published work, On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, or On the Origin of Species for short, Darwin stated that, "new species have come on the stage slowly and at successive intervals."(1) He also said, "old forms are supplanted by new and improved forms," and all organisms play a part in the "struggle for life.
Charles Darwin has had the greatest influence on the world by proving the evolution of living things. Charles Darwin had first noticed the similarities of plants and animals when he took a five-year cruise on the H.M.S. Beagle, which was available to him through a friend from school. During the cruise Charles Darwin started becoming interested with the similarities between the plants and animals that were similar on different islands with similar climates, so he decided to study them more closely.
In the book it is apparent that Charles Darwin was devoted to scientific methodology. He relies on inductive reasoning, building theories that are based on facts that had been collected from observation and experimentation. This enabled Darwin to obtain irrespirable evidence. This is apparent in his clarification of his theories of natural selection. In the book, he mentions experimentation and observation, particularly from his expedition on the H.M.S. Beagle, which allowed him to develop his theory to begin with.
Charles Darwin, the English naturalist and geologist is attributed and accredited for his theory of evolution. His theory of evolution is based on the premise that strong heritable traits help individuals to survive in adverse and inimical environments.
Long before Charles Darwin, other people made important contributions to the historical development of the theory of evolution. It all started in 5th century BC when early Greek philosophers characterized the origin of the natural world as by the power of nature rather than by supernatural force. They proposed the theory of evolution to explain the basis of the natural world. Thus, evolutionary theory began with the Ionian philosopher Anaximander (611-546 BC) who proposed living beings gradually developed from water and that humans originated from animals. He proposed the world had arisen from an undifferentiated, indeterminate substance. In the 6th century BC, Xenophanes (570475 BC) developed Anaximander’s theories by using fossils as evidence for a theory of the Earth as originating from water. In the 5th century, Empedocles postulated that the universe was composed of the elements: earth, air, fire and water. Darwin pays tribute to Empedocles for his theory of natural selection; Empedocles argued for reproductive fitness and survival of the fittest. In Roman times, the poet and philosopher Lucretius (99-55 BC) followed in Empedocles footsteps, proposing a similar evolutionary theory in which species were born out of the Earth formed by the combination of the elements with natural selection and survival of the fittest.