Introduction: On the Philosophy & Metaphysics of Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution

For thousands of years many philosophers had argued that life must have been created by a supernatural being / creator / God due to the incredible complexity of Nature (in particular, we humans and our minds). Thus it is remarkable that Charles Darwin (and others) were able to explain our existence by means of Evolution from Natural Selection - which is very obvious once understood. Below you will find a brief summary of Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution and some interesting quotes from Darwin on Evolution, Natural Selection, Science, Humanity, God and Religion. When thinking about evolution, it is important to take a further step and ask, 'What is evolving?' As this website explains, there is a simple and obvious explanation of what exists and thus how we can understand the metaphysical foundations of Evolution. See EvolutionMetaphysics webpage. We hope you enjoy the following quotes and browsing around this website. We have a wonderful collection of knowledge from many of the greatest minds of human history - and most importantly can provide a simple sensible explanation for most of them! Cheers, Geoff Haselhurst, Karene Howie Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this volume I by no means expect to convince experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine. But I look with confidence to the future to young and rising naturalists, who will be able to view both sides of the question with impartiality. (Charles Darwin)

Charles Darwin Quotes Theory of Evolution, Science, Humanity, Knowledge, God & Religion
In scientific investigations, it is permitted to invent any hypothesis and, if it explains various large and independent classes of facts, it rises to the rank of a well-grounded theory. (Charles Darwin) How extremely stupid for me not to have thought of that! (Thomas Huxley's first reflection after mastering, in 1859, the central idea of Darwin's Origin of Species) Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. (Charles Darwin, Introduction to The Descent of Man, 1871) In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment. (Charles Darwin) Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system- with all these exalted powers- Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. (Charles Darwin) Nothing before had ever made me thoroughly realise, though I had read various scientific books, that science consists in grouping facts so that general laws or conclusions may be drawn from them. (Charles Darwin) I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable in some clever men, for instance Huxley. (Charles Darwin) We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence. .. The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient. (Charles Darwin) .. doing what little one can to increase the general stock of knowledge is as respectable an object of life, as one can in any likelihood pursue. (Charles Darwin) a scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections .. a mere heart of stone. (Charles Darwin) I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions. (Charles Darwin) The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an improved theory, is it then a science or faith? (Charles Darwin)

Charles Darwin on God / Religion

I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars. (Charles Darwin) As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities. (Charles Darwin) Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress. (Charles Darwin) We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act. (Charles Darwin) I am a strong advocate for free thought on all subjects, yet it appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public; and freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds, which follow[s] from the advance of science. It has, therefore, been always my object to avoid writing on religion, and I have confined myself to science. I may, however, have been unduly biased by the pain which it would give some members of my family, if I aided in any way direct attacks on religion. (Charles Darwin) http://www.darwin-literature.com/l_quotes.html When I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled. (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, quoted from John Stear, No Answers in Genesis) What a book a Devil's Chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low and horribly cruel works of nature. (Charles Darwin, quoted by Richard Dawkins in A Devil's Chaplain, 2004) When it was first said that the sun stood still and world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox populi, vox Dei [the voice of the people is the voice of God], as every philosopher knows, cannot be trusted in science. (Charles Darwin, reminding his readers that they should always treat "obvious" truths with skepticism, in the context of the apparent absurdity of evolving a complex eye through a long series of gradual steps, in the famous passage added to later editions of the Origin of Species (1872, p. 134), quoted from Stephen Jay Gould, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (2002), chapter 1, "Defining and Revising the Structure of Evolutionary Theory," p. 1 (the bracketed translation is Gould's) False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness; and when this is done, one path toward errors is closed and the road to truth is often at the same time opened. (Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man)

A celebrated author and divine has written to me that he has gradually learned to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that he created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe that he required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of his laws. (Charles Darwin, Origin of Species p. 422) About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorize; and I well remember someone saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours. How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service! (Charles Darwin, letter to Henry Fawcett, who had defended Darwin before the British Association for the Advancement of Science against a critic who said Darwin's book was too theoretical and that he should have just "'put his facts before us and let them rest," quoted from Michael Shermer, "Colorful Pebbles and Darwin's Dictum: Science is an exquisite blend of data and theory," Scientific American, May, 2001) How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well as so many absurd religious beliefs, have originated, we do not know; nor how it is that they have become, in all quarters of the world, so deeply impressed on the minds of men; but it is worthy of remark that a belief constantly inculcated during the early years of life, while the brain is impressionable, appears to acquire almost the nature of an instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is followed independently of reason. (Charles Darwin, Descent of Man p. 122) I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for his existence. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-continued culture. (Charles Darwin, Descent of Man p. 612) I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is bound to show why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as a distinct species by descent from some lower from, through the laws of variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the individual through the laws of ordinary reproduction. The birth both of the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of blind chance. (Charles Darwin, Descent of Man p. 613) But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created that a cat should play with mice. (Charles Darwin, source unknown) http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/darwin.htm

Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution Brief Summary

Darwin's theory of evolution is based on five key observations and inferences drawn from them. These observations and inferences have been summarized by the great biologist Ernst Mayr as follows: 1) Species have great fertility. They make more offspring than can grow to adulthood. 2) Populations remain roughly the same size, with modest fluctuations. 3) Food resources are limited, but are relatively constant most of the time. From these three observations it may be inferred that in such an environment there will be a struggle for survival among individuals. 4) In sexually reproducing species, generally no two individuals are identical. Variation is rampant. 5) Much of this variation is heritable. From this it may be inferred: In a world of stable populations where each individual must struggle to survive, those with the "best" characteristics will be more likely to survive, and those desirable traits will be passed to their offspring. These advantageous characteristics are inherited by following generations, becoming dominant among the population through time. This is natural selection. It may be further inferred that natural selection, if carried far enough, makes changes in a population, eventually leading to new species. These observations have been amply demonstrated in biology, and even fossils demonstrate the veracity of these observations. To summarise Darwin's Theory of Evolution; 1. Variation: There is Variation in Every Population. 2. Competition: Organisms Compete for limited resources. 3. Offspring: Organisms produce more Offspring than can survive. 4. Genetics: Organisms pass Genetic traits on to their offspring. 5. Natural Selection: Those organisms with the Most Beneficial Traits are more likely to Survive and Reproduce. Darwin imagined it might be possible that all life is descended from an original species from ancient times. DNA evidence supports this idea. Probably all organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial life form. There is grandeur in this view of life that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved. (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species)

Darwin's Theory of Evolution - The Premise Darwin's Theory of Evolution is the widely held notion that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor: the birds and the bananas, the fishes and the flowers -- all related. Darwin's general theory presumes the development of life from non-life and stresses a purely naturalistic (undirected) "descent with modification". That is, complex creatures evolve from more simplistic ancestors naturally over time. In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism's genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival -- a process known as "natural selection." These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different organism (not just a variation of the original, but an entirely different creature). Darwin's Theory of Evolution - Natural Selection While Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a relatively young archetype, the evolutionary worldview itself is as old as antiquity. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Anaximander postulated the development of life from non-life and the evolutionary descent of man from animal. Charles Darwin simply brought something new to the old philosophy -- a plausible mechanism called "natural selection." Natural selection acts to preserve and accumulate minor advantageous genetic mutations. Suppose a member of a species developed a functional advantage (it grew wings and learned to fly). Its offspring would inherit that advantage and pass it on to their offspring. The inferior (disadvantaged) members of the same species would gradually die out, leaving only the superior (advantaged) members of the species. Natural selection is the preservation of a functional advantage that enables a species to compete better in the wild. Natural selection is the naturalistic equivalent to domestic breeding. Over the centuries, human breeders have produced dramatic changes in domestic animal populations by selecting individuals to breed. Breeders eliminate undesirable traits gradually over time. Similarly, natural selection eliminates inferior species gradually over time. Darwin's Theory of Evolution - Slowly But Surely... Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a slow gradual process. Darwin wrote, "Natural selection acts only by taking advantage of slight successive variations; she can never take a great and sudden leap, but must advance by short and sure, though slow steps." [1] Thus, Darwin conceded that, "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down." [2] Such a complex organ would be known as an "irreducibly complex system". An irreducibly complex system is one composed of multiple parts, all of which are necessary for the system to function. If even one part is missing, the entire system will fail to function. Every individual part is integral. [3] Thus, such a system could not have evolved slowly, piece by piece. The common mousetrap is an everyday nonbiological example of irreducible complexity. It is composed of five basic parts: a catch (to hold the bait), a powerful spring, a thin rod called "the hammer," a holding bar to secure the hammer in place, and a platform to mount the trap. If any one of these parts is missing, the mechanism will not work. Each individual part is integral. The mousetrap is irreducibly complex. [4] Darwin's Theory of Evolution - A Theory In Crisis Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a theory in crisis in light of the tremendous advances we've made in molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics over the past fifty years. We now know that there are in fact tens of thousands of irreducibly complex systems on the cellular level. Specified complexity pervades the microscopic biological world. Molecular biologist Michael Denton wrote, "Although the -12 tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, weighing less than 10 grams, each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one hundred thousand million atoms, far more complicated than any machinery built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world." [5] And we don't need a microscope to observe irreducible complexity. The eye, the ear and the heart are all examples of irreducible complexity, though they were not recognized as such in Darwin's day. Nevertheless, Darwin confessed, "To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree."

DARWIN'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION: DID MAN REALLY EVOLVE FROM ShareThis APES?

Charles Darwins theories on evolution upended the scientific community in the middle of the 19th century. He proposed that small changes over billions of years created the species we have today. Darwin felt that it was a survival of the fittest. Species that could adapt to their changing environment most effectively would survive, while the weaker genetic lines of species died off. Did you learn Darwins theories in high school science class? Many Americans have been taught Darwinian theories in the public school system. It is commonly taught in most public school systems around the country; however it is has been an on-going topic of debate. The main critics of Darwins theory of evolution are the supporters of creationism. These supporters argue that a divine entity played a role in human development and not strictly science. The debate has fluctuated in intensity with the Scopes trial in the earlier part of the 20th century to the present surge in the debate. This debate affects a majority of the American public as it is taught in the public school system. Therefore, it is a good idea to understand the facets of Darwinism. LearnOutLoud.com offers several audio books on the subject. Listen to The Theory of Evolution by Edward J. Larson to build a solid base of Darwinian knowledge. This audio learning resource is a series of lectures that follow the history and effects of Darwins theory of evolution. It is a comprehensive audio resource that should be at the heart of your audio library. Why not listen to Charles Darwin himself? Check out The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin. It is a journal account of his travels around the world. Experience his observations and conclusions on the origin of different species. Also listen to Evolution & Extinction by Stephen Jay Gould. In this audio book, Stephen Jay Gould comments on his observations and studies regarding evolution, natural selection, and much more. Want to learn both sides of the Darwin issue? Absorb the information and viewpoints of those that oppose Darwinism. Listen to Darwin on Trial by Phillip E. Johnson and Evolution and Its Discontents by Chandak Sengoopta. These audio resources question the validity of Darwins theories and present opposing views and theories. Another great resource to check out is the Teaching Company course Biology: The Science of Life. Taught by Duke University Professor Stephen Nowicki, this course goes into depth into many of the issues surrounding biology and evolution. Darwin's "Origin of the Species" is discussed in great detail. Evolution vs. Creationism is a serious, scientific issue. Why not add a little fun into the mix by listening to The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action by Wendy Northcutt. This hilarious audio book details how natural selection didnt quite remove all the unintelligent human species that have no common sense. Did man really evolve from apes? The next time this Darwinian debate shows its face in the news or at school, you can intelligently add to the discussion. Feel confident voicing your opinions on the matter after you have listened to these audio resources.