Charles Darwin

Modified: 2023-08-09

Darwin was one of the most influential men in history. His theory of evolution transformed the world's view of itself in several ways.

First, Darwin continued the trend of loss of uniqueness with regard to humankind's view of itself. The naive view of humans as unique and specially created had been under siege since the late Middle Ages (i.e., Galileo and Copernicus). Darwin's theory provided continuity between humans and the rest of nature.

Second, Darwin's mechanism of natural selection provided a plausible substitute for creationism, even though Darwin could not provide the details of natural selection. Those details came to light as the science of genetics was born and the theory of evolution merged with genetics to provide the "modern synthesis of biology."

Darwin's notion of survival of the fittest (although that phrase was Herbert Spencer's, not Darwin's) was wrong. Instead, modern evolutionary theory substitutes reproduction of the fittest, or differential reproductive success.

Third, Darwin and the geologists pushed back the time horizon of the history of the universe. Instead of Bishop Usher's thousands of years (since the Flood), we now argue over the 14.5 billion years (since the Big Bang).