The One of Most Popular Scientist – Charles Darwin

I have been raised as a faithful Christian and I was open to radical ideas and thoughts, for my family had heavily participated in the Enlightenment; Erasmus Darwin, my grandfather, had published a book which put out a radical concept – that one species could shift from one to another. Bending to the wishes of my parents, I went to Edinburgh to learn medicine. I was a terrible doctor, as I was terrified by blood; however, Edinburgh attracted speakers with controversial ideas that would not have been accepted anywhere else and I listened to them talk about ‘transmutation’, a proto-evolution idea. Giving my dream to be a doctor, I went to be a priest at Cambridge. I wasn’t content in this direction; however, I had time to pursue my real ambition: biology. After graduation in 1831, a friend recommended me as a ‘naturalist’ for a voyage on the HMS Beagle.

For the next five years, as I traveled to multiple continents, I spent my time collecting specimens, studying geographic variations, and drawing conclusions. The ship made stop at the Galapagos after visiting South America. Influenced by the ‘Principles of Geology’, I studied the wildlife, but I didn’t conclude anything here. When I came home, I conversed about my findings to others and began writing about the travel. As I was writing,I realized that animals more suited to their environment survived longer and had more offspring than those who were less suited for that environment. Nature used this process I coined ‘Natural Selection’.I decided to collect evidence before presenting these ideas.

In 1858, my theory of evolution was put forth to Britain’s Natural History council, the Linnean Society. Still shrouded in doubt, I published my theory of evolution. I was scrowled at by the Church and from multiple difference magazines. Several people were upset by the book’s underlying idea: people shared an ancestor with apes, though it was only hinted at. My ‘Origin of Species’ became a hit around Europe. As time went on, I strengthened my case. By countering critics, I built a solid case and I coined the concept of ‘survival of the fittest’, which, unlike ‘natural selection’, doesn’t imply a divine being being involved. In ‘The Descent of Man’, I presented the idea about our human ancestor. The book disturbed the church once again. However, my ideas had received popularity, but Victorian society was still concerned about the ideology that people shared an ancestor with monkeys, but many people had accepted this vision and became Darwinists.