Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809–19 April 1882) was a British naturalist who achieved lasting fame as originator of the theory of evolution through natural and sexual selection.

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Illness

From 1837 onwards Darwin was repeatedly incapacitated with episodes of stomach pains, vomiting, severe boils, palpitations, trembling and other symptoms, which particularly affected him at times of stress when attending meetings or dealing with controversy over his theory. The cause was unknown during his lifetime, and treatments had little success. Recent speculation suggested that in South America he caught Chagas' disease from insect bites, causing the later problems. Other possible causes include psychobiological problems.

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1837 - Chagas' disease

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Views on religion

Charles Darwin came from a Nonconformist background, but attended a Church of England school. At university studying Anglican theology to become a clergyman, he was a firm believer convinced by the teleological argument in William Paley's Natural Theology, which offered an argument for the existence of God from design. He joined the Voyage of the Beagle and later recalled that "Whilst on board the Beagle.. I was quite orthodox... But I had gradually come, by this time, to see that the Old Testament... was no more to be trusted than the... beliefs of any barbarian."

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Nonconformist - Church of England - Anglican - Teleological argument - William Paley - The Voyage of the Beagle - Beagle - Orthodox - Old Testament

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On return, while developing his theory of natural selection he came to think that the religious instinct had evolved with society and gradually lost his belief in the Bible. With the death of his daughter Annie, Darwin finally lost all faith in a beneficent God and saw Christianity as futile. He continued to give support to the local church and help with parish work, but on Sundays would go for a walk while his family attended church.

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Natural selection - Annie

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In his later life, Darwin was frequently asked about his religious views. He went as far as saying that he did "not believe in the Bible as a divine revelation", but was always insistent that he was agnostic and had "never been an atheist".

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Agnostic - Atheist

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In concluding his biography of his grandfather Darwin recounted how after the death of Erasmus Darwin in 1802 false stories were circulated that he had called for Jesus on his deathbed, writing "Such was the state of Christian feeling in this country at the ... we may at least hope that nothing of the kind now prevails". Despite this hope, the "Lady Hope Story" claiming his sickbed conversion was published in 1915 and has since been much propagated by some Christian groups to the extent of becoming an urban legend, though the claims were refuted by Darwin's children.

Related Topics:
Erasmus Darwin - 1802 - Lady Hope Story - 1915 - Urban legend

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Eugenics

Following Darwin's publication of the Origin his cousin Francis Galton applied the concepts to human society, producing ideas to promote "hereditary improvement" starting in 1865 and elaborated at length in 1869. In The Descent of Man Darwin agreed that Galton had demonstrated that "talent" and "genius" in humans were probably inherited, but thought that the social changes Galton proposed were too "utopian". Neither Galton nor Darwin supported government intervention and instead believed that, at most, heredity should be taken into consideration by people seeking potential mates. In 1883, after Darwin's death, Galton began calling his social philosophy Eugenics. In the twentieth century, eugenics movements gained popularity in a number of countries and became associated with reproduction control programmes such as compulsory sterilisation laws, then were stigmatised after their usage in the rhetoric of Nazi Germany in its goals of genetic "purity".

Related Topics:
Francis Galton - 1865 - 1869 - The Descent of Man - 1883 - Eugenics - Twentieth century - Compulsory sterilisation - Nazi Germany

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Social Darwinism

In 1944 the American historian Richard Hofstadter applied the term "Social Darwinism" to describe 19th- and 20th-century thinking developed from the ideas of Thomas Malthus and Herbert Spencer, which applied ideas of evolution and "survival of the fittest" to societies or nations competing for survival in a hostile world. These ideas became discredited by association with racism and imperialism. Though the term is anachronistic, in Darwin's day the difference between what was later called "Social Darwinism" and simple "Darwinism" was less clear. However, Darwin did not believe that his scientific theory mandated any particular theory of governance or social order.

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1944 - Richard Hofstadter - Social Darwinism - Thomas Malthus - Herbert Spencer - Survival of the fittest - Racism - Imperialism

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The use of the phrase "Social Darwinism" to describe Malthus's ideas is particularly disingenuous, since Malthus died in 1834 before the inception of Darwin's theory was spurred by his reading the 6th edition of Malthus' famous Essay on a Principle of Population in 1838. Spencer's evolutionary "progressivism" and his social and political ideas were largely Malthusian, and his books on economics of 1851 and on evolution of 1855 predated Darwin's publication of the Origin in 1859.

Related Topics:
1834 - Inception of Darwin's theory - 1838 - 1851 - 1855 - 1859

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