Facts About Charles Darwin

By Albert Joseph Albert Joseph
Level: Platinum

Profesional freelance writer currently living in Wyoming enjoying the fishing and the mountains. Lived overseas for ten years but now in Wyoming for fifteen years ...

Charles Darwin is a fascinating figure in history, few people have had as an enormous effect on mankind. The following are a few facts about this interesting man and his life.

Charles Darwin was born Feb.12, 1809, the same day as Abraham Lincoln. He died April 19, 1882, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.He married his first cousin Emma Wedgwood (of the Wedgwood china family).Charles and Emma had ten children. Three of his children died from illness. Two died while they were babies and one when she was ten years old. This last death of his ten-year old daughter Anne, was extremely hard on Darwin.His Theory of Evolution was not an original idea. Called "Transmutation" by others, it had been discussed and published by his Grandfather Erasmus and a French scientist Jean Baptiste Lamarck, as well as others.Went to medical school, but it didn't agree with him and he left early. He next started Theology school but left for his famous voyage on the H.M.S Beagle before completing his studies. Traveling around South America and Australia he gathered numerous samples of life which he kept and cataloged. Much of his findings were sent back to England and he was a famous man by the time he returned.His famous voyage on the H.M.S Beagle was just shy of five years and he was constantly sea-sick.While known by the public mainly for his book on Natural Selection; On the Origin of Species, he actually wrote another book on the same topic called The Descent of Man. Both books discussed his theories on Natural Selection and Survival of the Fittest. The first concentrated on animals and the second on humans.Darwin's theories on evolution came to be known as Darwinism and used Natural Selection and Survival of the Fittest as the sole reason for evolution, explicitly denying a Creator.

Darwin himself was a loving husband and father who doted on his children. He was also a strong abolitionist. Unfortunately, if you take his views on evolution to their logical conclusion they give support and credence to racism and eugenics.

Regrettably, many evil people (Hitler, Marx and Margaret Sanger) did take his theories seriously, and used them with inhuman and deadly results. To this day the origin of life and evolution is a hotly debated topic and Darwin is usually in the midst of it.

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Article Submitted On: February 21, 2011