Thursday, October 30, 2014

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell

Charles Darwin was known to many as the "Father of Evolution" but some do not know that many of his ideas came from other people as well. He was influenced by many others and the one I believe to be the most influential over him is Charles Lyell. He was mostly influenced by Lyells theory once he read his Principles of Geology when he was on the Beagle Voyage. While on the voyage Darwin experienced an earthquake that scared him very much which made him believe Lyells theory even more. The reason for Darwin being influenced while on the voyage was because Lyell believed that the geological events that happened at the beginning of time are the exact same ones that will happen again. A point that relates to Darwins and Lyells influence from "How does evolution work?" would be how as the environment changes species will change as well so they will be best suited for the environment. They believed that there must be changes in the earth in order to change the species because without any changes the species will remain the same and will not adapt to changes in the future. I do not believe that Charles Darwin could have constructed his theory without the influence of Lyell. They both contributed to their ideas because Charles Darwin in a way also influenced Lyell very much. One "Origin of Species" was published it opened many of those religious peoples eyes because it made them question life and its origins also everything they had believed previously.

Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/02/4/l_024_01.html
http://evolution.about.com/od/Darwin/tp/People-Who-Influenced-Charles-Darwin.htm