Charles Darwin and Evolution

Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 on Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. Being the fifth child of six, he lived on a wealthy society under the care of his parents Robert and Sussanah Darwin. His father was a wealthy doctor and financier and he should have been, to maintain six children and his wife. Darwin is best known for arriving to the theory of evolution. In other words, that every species of animals has over time been changing with some similar characteristics still shared by ancestors.


Charles Darwin arrived to his theory by observing many species of similar animals. He observed that in these different populations of animals, there were little variations. He related these variations to the different limited resources being fought amongst these groups of animals. He came to the idea that those animals who survived within the different groups of animals according to their environment passed their favorable traits to their next generations. Depending on the environment of animals, and different variations in the fight for existence in each different population of animals, the hereditary patterns passed to offspring would change. The law that describes how traits that are passed on in generations become more or less common in recent generations, is known as Natural Selection. Darwin developed this theory that became a law through his many studies and observations having to do with evolution.

Many cultural and religious beliefs during Darwin's time made his theory very avoided by people. In those times, the majority of the population believed that god created us since the beginning of times exactly how we are now. So, Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection seemed really absurd and completely wrong. It went against all churchs beliefs of creation so it probably was considered an idea that went against god. Making no one want to believe his theory. Not even his own wife wanted to believe what he had come up with after so many research since she was so religious. Darwin had many issues that made him struggle while developing his theory. First, his favorite daughter was really sick. Darwin did everything he could to cure her but had no success since she soon died. Darwin was really affected by the death of his daughter, which caused him anguish which became an obstacle for continuing to develop his theory. Also, Darwin got really dissapointed when he discovered that his unique theory and work of his life, had also been discovered by another man. This distresses became an obstacle for Darwin's theory, but did not stop him completely to develop it. Until years after Darwin's death, his theory became really popular and believable to more and more people.