The Darwin I Never Knew

The Darwin I never knew 30 September 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................... 2 DARWIN HAD A PROBLEM WITH GOD ............................................................................................................. 2 DARWIN’S INITIAL THOUGHTS ON MISSIONARIES............................................................................................................ 2 ATTITUDE TOWARD GENESIS ...................................................................................................................................... 2 1. Misunderstood and misrepresented Genesis .......................................................................................... 2 2. Disbelieved in the Fall of Man in Genesis ................................................................................................ 2 3. Despised the book of Genesis ................................................................................................................. 2 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL .............................................................................................................................................. 2 DARWIN’S LACK OF FAITH IN GOD .............................................................................................................................. 3 LOSS OF BEAUTY & HAPPINESS................................................................................................................................... 3 DARWIN HAD AN AGENDA .............................................................................................................................. 3 ACCORDING TO CHARLES DARWIN .............................................................................................................................. 3 ACCORDING TO THOMAS HUXLEY ............................................................................................................................... 4 ACCORDING TO RICHARD DAWKINS ............................................................................................................................. 4 ACCORDING TO JANET BROWNE ................................................................................................................................. 4 ACCORDING TO OTHER AUTHORITIES ........................................................................................................................... 4 DARWIN MADE A MONSTER ............................................................................................................................ 5 DARWIN’S IDEAS DESTROYED THE BASIS FOR INTELLIGENCE .............................................................................................. 5 DARWIN’S IDEAS MADE SLAVERY INTRINSIC TO NATURE .................................................................................................. 5 DARWIN’S IDEAS MADE CRUELTY INTRINSIC TO NATURE .................................................................................................. 5 DARWIN’S IDEAS ENCOURAGED RACISM ....................................................................................................................... 6 DARWIN’S IDEAS ENCOURAGED EUGENICS .................................................................................................................... 6 DARWIN’S IDEAS ENCOURAGED THE INFERIORITY OF WOMEN .......................................................................................... 6 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................... 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................................. 8 APPENDIX A: DARWIN’S LIFE ........................................................................................................................... 9 TIMELINE (1809-1882) ........................................................................................................................................... 9 VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE (1831-1836) 5 YEARS ........................................................................................................... 9 APPENDIX B: DARWIN’S IDEAS WERE UNORIGINAL ...................................................................................... 10 APPENDIX C: DARWIN’S IGNORANCE ............................................................................................................. 11 FUDGE FACTOR INDEX ............................................................................................................................................ 11 APPENDIX D: INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERISTICS ....................................................................... 12 APPENDIX E: DARWIN’S CONCLUSION TO ORIGIN OF SPECIES ....................................................................... 13

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INTRODUCTION 2009 in perspective. Comparing Galileo (1609) and Darwin (1859). ―Charles Darwin‘s Origin of Species is surely one of the greatest scientific books ever written.‖ (Browne, 2006:1). ―Evolution is promoted by its practitioners as more than mere science. Evolution is promulgated as an ideology, a secular religion – a full-fledged alternative to Christianity, with meaning and morality. I am an ardent evolutionist and an ex-Christian, but I must admit that in this one complaint... the literalists are absolutely right. Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it true of evolution still today.‖ (italics mine, Michael Ruse as quoted in Bergman, 2008:38). Some things you probably didn‘t know about Darwin...

DARWIN HAD A PROBLEM WITH GOD DARWIN’S INITIAL THOUGHTS ON MISSIONARIES In his Journal from the Voyage of the Beagle he praises the successes of the missionary effort to civilise savage races. ―All this is very surprising, when it is considered that five years ago nothing but the fern flourished here. Moreover, native workmanship, taught by the missionaries, has effected this change;—the lesson of the missionary is the enchanter's wand.‖ (Voyage of the Beagle, p.419, 1835)

ATTITUDE TOWARD GENESIS The origin of species is referred to as that ―mystery of mysteries‖ (Origin of Species, p.3)

1. Misunderstood and misrepresented Genesis ―theory of independent creation‖ as ―the doctrine of the creation of each separate species‖ – i.e. the fixity of species Genesis 1:24, ―And God said, ―Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds— livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.‖ And it was so.‖

2. Disbelieved in the Fall of Man in Genesis The Ascent of Man in the Descent of Man: ―To believe that man was aboriginally civilised and then suffered utter degradation in so many regions, is to take a pitiably low view of human nature. It is apparently a truer and more cheerful view that progress has been much more general then retrogression; that man has risen, though by slow and interrupted steps, from a lowly condition to the highest standard as yet attained by him in knowledge, morals and religion.‖ (Descent of Man, p. 145)

3. Despised the book of Genesis ―What could be more striking, what could better indicate his attitude of mind, than the fact that in the Origin of Species he never mentioned the book of Genesis, while in the Descent of Man he never alluded to Adam and Eve? Such contemptuous silence was more eloquent than the most pointed attack.‖ (George Foote, 1889:6)

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL Darwin‘s daughter Annie died at the age of 10 years in 1851. (3 children died in total) ―We behold the face of nature bright with gladness, we often see superabundance of food; we do not see, or we forget, that the birds which are idly singing round us mostly live on insects or seeds, and are thus constantly destroying life; or we forget how largely these songsters, or their eggs, or their nestlings, are destroyed by birds and beasts of prey; we do not always bear in mind, that though food

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may be now superabundant, it is not so at all seasons of each recurring year.‖ (Origin of Species, p.62) ―That there is much suffering in the world no one disputes... A being so powerful and so full of knowledge as a God who could create the universe, is to our finite minds omnipotent and omniscient, and it revolts our understanding to suppose that his benevolence is not unbounded, for what advantage can there be in the sufferings of millions of the lower animals throughout almost endless time? This very old argument from the existence of suffering against the existence of an intelligent first cause seems to me a strong one; whereas, as just remarked, the presence of much suffering agrees well with the view that all organic beings have been developed through variation and natural selection.‖ (Darwin’s Autobiography, p.75) ―For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey... or that old baboon... as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.‖ (Descent of Man, 2004:689).

DARWIN’S LACK OF FAITH IN GOD 1. Darwin was not a ―born-again‖ Christian. But he was raised by religious parents. 2. He wanted to become a country vicar – only so that he had time to be a naturalist. 3. Darwin did not become a Christian on his death bed. The family corroborate this. He was an agnostic at the end of his life: ―The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to be an Agnostic.‖ (Darwin’s Autobiography, p.78) His use of religious language in Origin of Species was merely strategic: ―But I have long regretted that I truckled to public opinion, and used the Pentateuchal term of creation, by which I really meant ―appeared‖ by some wholly unknown process. It is mere rubbish, thinking at present of the origin of life; one might as well think of the origin of matter.‖ (in a letter to Joseph Hooker, 29 March 1863; Darwin, 1887:18)

LOSS OF BEAUTY & HAPPINESS ―They believe that very many structures have been created for beauty in the eyes of man, or for mere variety. This doctrine, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory.‖ (Origin of Species, p.199) ―I have also said that formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great delight. But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost any taste for pictures or music... I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did... This curious and lamentable loss of the higher aesthetic tastes is all the odder... The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness‖ (Autobiography, p.113)

DARWIN HAD AN AGENDA ACCORDING TO CHARLES DARWIN ―But I had gradually come, by this time to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow as a sign, etc., etc., and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian... By further reflecting that the clearest evidence would be requisite to make any sane man believe in the miracles by which Christianity is supported, -- that the more we know of the fixed laws of nature the more incredible do miracles become, -- that the men at that time were ignorant and credulous to a degree almost incomprehensible by us, -- that the Gospels cannot be proved to have been written simultaneously with the events, -- that they differ in many important

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details, far too important as it seems to me to be admitted as the usual inaccuracies of eye-witnesses, -- by such reflections as these, which I give not as the least novelty or value, but as they influenced me, I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation... I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.‖ (Autobiography, 1993:71-72) ―I cannot think that the world, as we see it, is the result of chance; and yet I cannot look at each separate thing as the result of design‖ (in a letter to Asa Gray, Browne, 2001:109).

ACCORDING TO THOMAS HUXLEY ―I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how any one, for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures... if Abraham is more or less a mythical hero, such as Theseus; the story of the Deluge a fiction; that of the Fall a legend; and that of the creation the dream of a seer; if all these definite and detailed narratives of apparently real events have no more value as history than have the stories of the regal period of Rome–what is to be said about the Messianic doctrine, which is so much less clearly enunciated? And what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fictions for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands?‖ (Huxley, 1899:207-208)

ACCORDING TO RICHARD DAWKINS ―although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist‖ (Dawkins, 1986:6).

ACCORDING TO JANET BROWNE ―Darwin seemed to be expelling the divine completely from the Western world, calling into doubt everything then believed about the human soul and our sense of morality... Darwin was popularly supposed to have assassinated the idea of God and once, jokingly, labelled himself the ‘devil’s chaplain’.‖ (Janet Browne, 2001:2). ―[Darwin] was delighted by the grand theoretical schemes he found in Charles Lyell‘s Principles of Geology and excited by Lyell‘s rejection of biblical authority as a source of geological explanation. The book was commonly regarded as theologically radical...At that time, few geologists believed that the earth had literally been created in six days. They saw the Bible more as a metaphor for the stages that the earth must have undergone from its beginnings to the present day.‖ (Janet Browne, 2001:30-31).

ACCORDING TO OTHER AUTHORITIES ―The greatest scientific advance of the last 1000 years was providing the evidence to prove that human beings are independent agents whose lives on earth are neither conferred nor controlled by celestial forces…… nothing was more important than providing the means to release men and women from the hegemony of the supernatural.‖ (Graham Warren & Ira Mellman. The road taken: past and future foundations of membrane traffic. 2000. Cell 100, 99–112.) ―First and foremost, The Origin is an exorcism of the doctrine of special creation, and conducted by one of the most skilled exorcists science has ever seen.‖ (Simon Conway Morris) ―The popular triumph of Darwinism must be the death-blow to theology... Similarly the Darwinian biology is a sentence of doom on the natural history of the Bible. Evolution and special creation are antagonistic ideas... And if man himself has descended, or ascended, from lower forms of life; if he has been developed through thousands of generations from a branch of the Simian family; it necessarily follows that the Garden of Eden is a fairy tale, that Adam and Eve were not the parents of the human race, that the Fall is an oriental legend, that Original Sin is a theological libel on humanity, that the Atonement is an unintelligible dogma, and the Incarnation a relic of ancient mythology.‖ (George Foote, 1889:4-5)

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DARWIN MADE A MONSTER DARWIN’S IDEAS DESTROYED THE BASIS FOR INTELLIGENCE ―I must premise, that I have nothing to do with the origin of the primary mental powers, any more than I have with that of life itself.‖ (Origin of Species, p.207) ―In what manner the mental powers were first developed in the lowest organisms, is as hopeless an enquiry as how life itself first originated.‖ (Descent of Man, p.66) ―can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe, been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animal, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions?‖ (Autobiography, p.77) ―If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents—the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the thoughts of the materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone else‘s. But if their thoughts—i.e. of materialism and astronomy—are merely accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents.‖ (C.S. Lewis (1898–1963), The Business of Heaven, Fount Paperbacks, U.K., p. 97, 1984.)

DARWIN’S IDEAS MADE SLAVERY INTRINSIC TO NATURE Darwin writing of an acquaintance, Carlyle: ―his views about slavery were revolting. In his eyes might was right.‖ (Autobiography, p.93) Darwin takes pains to illustrate and argue for the slave-making instinct in ants by natural selection. Darwin says in one of his letters to Hooker, ―I had such a piece of luck at Moor Park: I found the rare Slave-making Ant, & saw the little black niggers in their Master's nests‖. ―The slaves are black and not above half the size of their red masters, so that the contrast in their appearance is great. When the nest is slightly disturbed, the slaves occasionally come out, and like their masters are much agitated and defend the nest: when the nest is much disturbed, and the larvæ and pupæ are exposed, the slaves work energetically together with their masters in carrying them away to a place of safety... Such are the facts, though they did not need confirmation by me, in regard to the wonderful instinct of making slaves.‖ (Origin of Species, p.217-219) Thus Darwin cannot condemn slavery in ants or humans for if instincts really are acquired by natural selection, there cannot be anything intrinsically wrong about them. Humans who enslave other humans are only behaving like ants.

DARWIN’S IDEAS MADE CRUELTY INTRINSIC TO NATURE ―I had a strong taste for angling, and would sit for any number of hours on the bank of a river or pond watching the float; when at Maer I was told that I could kill the worms with salt and water, and from that day I never spitted a living worm, though at the expense, probably, of some loss of success. Once as a very little boy, whilst at the day-school, or before that time, I acted cruelly, for I beat a puppy I believe, simply from enjoying the sense of power; but the beating could not have been severe, for the puppy did not howl, of which I feel sure as the spot was near to the house.‖ (Autobiography, p.26) ―All that we can do, is to keep steadily in mind that each organic being is striving to increase at a geometrical ratio; that each at some period of its life, during some season of the year, during each generation or at intervals, has to struggle for life, and to suffer great destruction. When we reflect on this struggle, we may console ourselves with the full belief, that the war of nature is not incessant, that PAGE 5

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no fear is felt, that death is generally prompt, and that the vigorous, the healthy, and the happy survive and multiply.‖ (Origin of Species, p.78-79) ―Finally, it may not be a logical deduction, but to my imagination it is far more satisfactory to look at such instincts as the young cuckoo ejecting its foster-brothers,—ants making slaves,—the larvæ of ichneumonidæ feeding within the live bodies of caterpillars,—not as specially endowed or created instincts, but as small consequences of one general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.‖ (Origin of Species, p.243244). Theologically, death is our enemy; with Darwin however, death is our friend.

DARWIN’S IDEAS ENCOURAGED RACISM ―At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes… will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian [Aboriginal] and the gorilla‖ (Descent of Man, p.183-184) ―The Fuegians, as I have been informed by a missionary who long resided with them, consider European women as extremely beautiful; but from what we have seen of the judgment of the other aborigines of America, I cannot but think that this must be a mistake, unless indeed the statement refers to the few Fuegians who have lived for some time with Europeans, and who must consider us as superior beings.‖ (Descent of Man, in a footnote, p.649) ―No rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the white man.‖ (Thomas Huxley, in Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews, p.29)

DARWIN’S IDEAS ENCOURAGED EUGENICS ―With savages, the weak in body and mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed and the sick; we institute poor laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of everyone to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands who, from a weak constitution, would formerly have succumbed to smallpox. Thus the weak members of civilised society propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but, excepting in the case of man himself, hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed… We must, therefore, bear the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind.‖ (Charles Darwin, The nd Descent of Man, 2 Ed., pp. 133–134, 1887) Francois Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin was the founder of eugenics.

DARWIN’S IDEAS ENCOURAGED THE INFERIORITY OF WOMEN Beautiful women are more intelligent: ―The men who are rich through primogeniture are able to select generation after generation the more beautiful and charming women; and these must generally be healthy in body and active in mind.‖ (Descent of Man, p. 161) ―Man is more courageous, pugnacious and energetic than woman, and has a more inventive genius. His brain is absolutely larger, but whether or not proportionately to his larger body, has not, I believe been fully ascertained.‖ (Descent of Man, p.622) ―The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shewn by man's attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can woman—whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands. If two lists were made of the most PAGE 6

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eminent men and women in poetry, painting, sculpture, music... history, science, and philosophy, with half-a-dozen names under each subject, the two lists would not bear comparison... the average of mental power in man must be above that of woman.‖ (Descent of Man, p.629) ―Thus man has ultimately become superior to woman.‖ (Descent of Man, p.631) ―Man is more powerful in body and mind than woman, and in the savage state he keeps her in a far more abject state of bondage, than does the male of any other animal; therefore it is not surprising that he should have gained the power of selection.‖ (Descent of Man, p.665)

CONCLUSION 1. The question regarding the Origin of Species is primarily a theological question. It asks a question which cannot be resolved by appealing to: a. Repeatable b. Predictable c. Empirical d. Falsifiable processes 2. The heart of Origin of Species is grounded in an anti-theistic quest to vindicate a naturalistic philosophy of reality. 3. The catalysing force behind Origin of Species stemmed from the question of theodicy. Darwin was not impartial to the outcome of his research – he was prejudiced against God from the start. He had a vested interest in the results of his argument. The scientific icing to Origin of Species sits upon a fat theological cake. Today the icing may have changed but the cake remains. This is why Darwin has been unanimously embraced by atheists and agnostics alike despite the fact that much of his scientific speculations have been discarded: 1. vestigial organs 2. inheritance of acquired characteristics 3. spontaneous generation 4. arguments from homology & embryology 5. theory of pangenesis 6. uniformitarianism 7. the variation in finches‘ beaks, etc. ―even if there were no actual evidence in favour of the Darwinian theory... we should still be justified in preferring it over all rival theories‖ (Dawkins, 1986:287) Crux In 1870 he wrote to J. D. Hooker (More Letters, Vol. I, p. 321.) "Your conclusion that all speculation about preordination is idle waste of time is the only wise one; but how difficult it is not to speculate! My theology is a simple muddle; I cannot look at the universe as the result of blind chance, yet I can see no evidence of beneficent design, or indeed of design of any kind, in the details." The popularity of Origin of Species does not come from its science, but its theology.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY BERGMAN, J. 2008. Slaughter of the Dissidents: the shocking truth about killing the careers of Darwin Doubters. Southworth, Washington: Leafcutter Press. 448 p. BROWNE, J. 2006. Darwin's Origin of Species. Great Britain: Atlantic Books. 174 p. DARWIN, C. 1859. On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray. 502 p. DARWIN, C. 1877. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: John Murray. 693 p. DARWIN, F. ed. 1887. The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. London: John Murray. DARWIN, C. DARWIN, F. ed. 1887. The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. Vol. III. London: John Murray. 418 p. DARWIN, C. BURROW, J. ed. 1968. The Origin of the Species. 1st Edition. England: Penguin Books. 477 p. DARWIN, C. BARLOW, N. ed. 1993. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 210 p. DARWIN, C. BEER, G. ed. 1998. The Origin of the Species. 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 439 p. DARWIN, C. 2004. The Descent of Man. London: Penguin Books. 791 p. DAWKINS, R. 1986. The Blind Watchmaker. England: Longman, Scientific & Technical. 332 p. FOOTE, G.W. 1889. Darwin on God. London: Progressive Publishing Company. 64 p. HUXLEY, T.H. 1899. Science and Hebrew Tradition. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 372 p.

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APPENDIX A: DARWIN’S LIFE TIMELINE (1809-1882) Date 1809 1825 1828-1831

1830 1831-1836

1837 1838 1844 1851 1858 1859 1865 1871 1882

Event Charles Darwin is born. Darwin goes to Edinburgh Medical School Studies under Robert Grant (1793-1874) Darwin goes to Cambridge University Studies under John Stevens Henslow (professor of botany) Studies under Adam Sedgwick (professor of geology) Studied William Paley‘s ―Evidences of Christianity‖ ―Principles of Geology‖ is written by Charles Lyell Darwin goes for his 5 year voyage on the HMS Beagle Robert Fitzroy gives Darwin ―Principles of Geology‖ to read Darwin has a significant experience in Tierra de Fuego with the Fuegians Darwin establishes his materialistic/naturalistic agenda Darwin reads Malthus‘s ―An Essay on the Principle of Population‖ Darwin develops his theory of Natural Selection based on the ―survival of the fittest‖ ―Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation‖ is written by Robert Chambers Annie, Darwin‘s second child, dies of fever at only 10 years old Alfred Wallace sends Darwin a letter with the results of his own research ―The Origin of the Species‖ is published ―Experiments on Plant Hybridisation‖ is written by Gregor Mendel ―The Descent of Man‖ is published Darwin dies.

VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE (1831-1836) 5 YEARS Route: th Departed on 27 Dec 1831 from Plymouth (England)  Santa Cruz (off the coast of Africa)  down the west coast of South America  around past Tierra del Fuego  up to the Galapagos Islands (3 years later)  across the Pacific Ocean to Tahiti  Tasmania  Sidney  across the Indian Ocean to Mauritius  Cape Town  back to South America  Falmouth (England) (Oct 1836)

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APPENDIX B: DARWIN’S IDEAS WERE UNORIGINAL 1. Darwin was not the founder of Evolutionary theory. The tree version of evolution was original with Darwin (as opposed to the popular ladder involving a teleological focus). The idea of transmutations can even be found in Zoonomia, a book his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, had written many decades earlier. Also Comte de Buffon, Lamarck both had proposed evolutionary models. 2. Darwin was not a zoologist. He was primarily trained in botany and geology. But in all areas of science he drew upon the expertise of other authorities (eg. Charles Lyell). He collected beetles, and wrote papers on climbing plants, insect-orchid mutualisms, earthworms, coral reefs, and barnacles. 3. The Galapagos Islands were not the catalyst of his theory of origins but were important nevertheless (often used as a eureka moment by historians) – he actually missed the significance of the variation between the finches. 4. Darwin did not discover ―natural selection‖ – he only coined the phrase: a. James Hutton (1726–1797) ‗seminal variation‘ i. Scottish geologist, ii. proposed that the world was old iii. spoke of dogs and survival, ‗the natural tendency of the race, acting upon the same principle of seminal variation, would be to change the qualities of the animal and to produce a race of well scented hounds, instead of those who catch their prey by swiftness‘. b. William Wells (1757–1817) i. Scottish-American doctor ii. in central Africa some inhabitants ‗would be better fitted than the others to bear the diseases of the country. This race would consequently multiply, while the others would decrease...the color of this vigorous race … would be dark‘ and that ‗as the darkest would be the best fitted for the climate, this would at length become the most prevalent, if not the only race, in the particular country in which it had originated‘. c. Patrick Matthew (1790–1874) i. Scottish fruit-grower d. Edward Blyth (1810–1873) i. English chemist & zoologist ii. wrote 3 major articles on natural selection that were published in The Magazine of Natural History from 1835 to 1837 (Darwin read these on the Beagle) 5. Darwin did not discover ―sexual selection‖ – His grandfather did: ―The final cause of this contest among males seems to be, that the strongest and most active animal should propagate the species which should thus become improved.‖ (Autobiography, Nora Barlow, p. 123)

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APPENDIX C: DARWIN’S IGNORANCE ―Our ignorance of the laws of variation is profound.‖ (Origin of Species, p.167) ―How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us more than how life itself first originated‖ (Origin of Species, p.187) ―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.‖ (Origin of Species, p.143)

FUDGE FACTOR INDEX Words generally, might, sometimes, probably, doubt, seems, i think, perhaps, hardly, suppose, possible, it may, unknown, chance, occasionally, probable, belief, more or less, doubtful, somewhat, likely, assume, our ignorance, usually, imagination, mostly, imagine, know not, as far as I can, uncertain.

Comparison Chart

Darwin Mendel Curie Einstein Galilei 0.012452 0.006667556 0.004805 0.004563715 0.004664095 Darwin is twice as fudgy as Gregor Mendel Darwin is roughly three times as fudgy as Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Galileo Galilei

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APPENDIX D: INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERISTICS st

th

―habit‖ – nearly more than 100 more references between 1 and 6 edition ―I think there can be little doubt that use in our domestic animals strengthens and enlarges certain parts, and disuse diminishes them; and that such modifications are inherited.‖ (Origin of Species, p.143) ―On the whole, we may conclude that habit, or use and disuse, have, in some cases, played a considerable part in the modification of the constitution and structure; but that the effects have often been largely combined with, and sometimes overmastered by, the natural selection of innate th variations.‖ (Origin of Species, 6 edition, p.114) ―I have now recapitulated the facts and considerations which have thoroughly convinced me that species have been modified, during a long course of descent. This has been effected chiefly through the natural selection of numerous successive, slight, favourable variations; aided in an important manner by the inherited effects of the use and disuse of parts; ... But as my conclusions have lately been much misrepresented, and it has been stated that I attribute the modification of species exclusively to natural selection, I may be permitted to remark that in the first edition of this work, and subsequently, I placed in a most conspicuous position—namely, at the close of the Introduction—the following words: "I am convinced that natural selection has been the main but not the exclusive th means of modification." This has been of no avail.‖ (Origin of Species, 6 edition, p.421) ―I may take this opportunity of remarking that my critics frequently assume that I attribute all changes of corporeal structure and mental power exclusively to the natural selection of such variations as are often called spontaneous; whereas, even in the first edition of the 'Origin of Species,' I distinctly stated that great weight must be attributed to the inherited effects of use and disuse, with respect both to the body and mind.‖ (in the preface to Descent of Man) ―I may be permitted to say, as some excuse, that I had two distinct objects in view; firstly, to shew that species had not been separately created, and secondly, that natural selection had been the chief agent of change, though largely aided by the inherited effects of habit, and slightly by the direct action of the surrounding conditions. I was not, however, able to annul the influence of my former belief, then almost universal, that each species had been purposely created; and this led to my tacit assumption that every detail of structure, excepting rudiments, was of some special, though unrecognised, service. Any one with this assumption in his mind would naturally extend too far the action of natural selection, either during past or present times. Some of those who admit the principle of evolution, but reject natural selection, seem to forget, when criticising my book, that I had the above two objects in view; hence if I have erred in giving to natural selection great power, which I am very far from admitting, or in having exaggerated its power, which is in itself probable, I have at least, as I hope, done good service in aiding to overthrow the dogma of separate creations.‖ (Descent of Man, p.61)

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APPENDIX E: DARWIN’S CONCLUSION TO ORIGIN OF SPECIES st

1 Edition: ―Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and 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.‖ (p.490) nd

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2  6 Edition: ―Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and 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.‖ (p.429)

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