P6+Darwinism

Darwinism

1. **Current Belief** -Cesar Garrido

Charles Darwin introduced the concept of transmutation of specials or evolution, using his and other people’s research to write and publish “On the Origins of species”. Darwin writes his book stating that animals have evolved throughout the years, losing the traits the animal doesn’t need and gaining the ones that improve its survival making the species more efficient, resulting in a massive spike of scientific support after the book was published. After the “On the Origins of species” was published many realized that the book also suggested that humans underwent the same process (theory of natural selection) making it very controversial. Many challenged his theory because of media in science where they claimed Darwin lacked scientific prove, the association of animal and man and most importantly the clash with creationism. Darwinism was criticized when people made the connection that Humans evolved from an animal completely going against creationism, which had been thought through out schools and churches where humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being.

Work Cited: []

Ritchie, Donald A. American History The Modern Era Since 1865. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999.

Anderson, Judith. "Dealing With the Media in the Science." [Online] Available []

3. **Radical Thoughts** -Andrew Aubuchon

There are both public and scientific views of Darwinism. Scientific views of Darwinism are mostly just questions of if Darwin was accurate or not. The proof of humans evolving from apes is highly controversial among the scientific community. Even in the 1800’s there was debates about the accuracy and chance of Darwin’s theories. “ The Wilberforce-Huxley debate in 1860, early twentieth-century debates about the heritability of acquired characteristics and the consistency of Mendelian genetics with natural selection” (Depew 323). This quote basically states that the debate was questioning the probability that the characteristics and heritability from apes to humans could be connected or a cause of natural selection. With these many theories and many others such as, birds being relatable to dinosaurs, or something as well known as tomatoes being a fruit. The possibilities of evolved forms of life from another is highly probable, but just because apes share the appearance and body structure doesn’t mean we humans evolved from them.

Henderson, James “Vitalism and the Darwin Debate” Science & Education v21 n8 Aug 2012: 1139-1149. Web. 2012

Depew, David j “Darwinian Controversies: An Historiograpical Recounting” Science & Education v19 n4-5 May 2010: 323-366. Web. 2010

4. **Popular Attitude** -Carissa Lopez

The popular attitude towards Darwinism was that there was no possible way that humans could evolve from any type of animal. As described by Geoff Haselhurst “For thousands of years philosophers had argued that life must have been created by a supernatural being/creator/God due to the incredible complexity of Nature” (Haselhurst). The fact that nature was not as easily understood as the belief of supernatural being made it hard for people to believe in the possibility that everyone was created through such a “complex” being. As well as being hard to understand and a difficult theory to agree with, the Enlightenment greatly encouraged people in religious beliefs and to shy away from scientific theories. The idea that everything in the world was not made through God and was made through nature was not in any way possible because most believed that God was the creator.

Works Cited: Haselhurst, Geoff. //Space and Motion.// 11 Sep., 2012. Web. 8 Jan. 2013.

Ancil, Ralph E.. //Attitudes About Nature and Society: Our Darwinian Legacy.// Web. 8 Jan. 2013.