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CC Preceptors – Handout
DARWIN
1.
“Evolution is the root of atheism, of communism, nazism, behaviorism, racism, economic
imperialism, militarism, libertinism, anarchism, and all manner of anti-Christian systems
of belief and practice.”
Henry Morris, 1972.
2.
“We find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.”
James Hutton, 1795.
3.
“Having been myself a believer, and to the best of my power, a propagator of what I now
regard as a philosophic heresy … I think it right, as one of my last acts before I quit this
Chair, thus publicly to read my recantation.
We ought, indeed, to have paused before we first adopted the diluvian theory,
and referred all our old superficial gravel to the action of the Mosaic Flood. For of man,
and the works of his hands, we have not yet found a single trace among the remnants of a
former world entombed in these ancient deposits.”
Adam Sedgwick, 1831.
4.
“At last gleams of light have come, and I am almost convinced (quite contrary to the
opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable.”
Charles Darwin to J.D. Hooker, 1844.
Variation.
Within each species there is always variation.
Competition. For any species, at almost all times, more organisms are born than
can survive and reproduce to their full potential.
Variation with respect to fitness. For any species, some of the variation is
relevant to the ability to survive and reproduce.
Hereditary variation in fitness.
For any species, some of the variation relevant
to the ability to survive and reproduce is heritable.
Principle of Natural Selection
Within any species, heritable variations that improve the ability of
organisms to survive and reproduce will become more prevalent in
successive generations.
The Fact of Evolution
Different species are related by descent with modification.
The Mechanism of Evolution
“… Natural Selection has been the main but not exclusive means of
modification”. (Origin p.6)
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CC Preceptors – Handout
5.
“[F.W. Hutton] is one of the very few who see that the change of species cannot be
directly proved, and that the doctrine must sink or swim according as it groups and
explains phenomena.”
Darwin to Hooker, 1861.
6.
“I am actually weary of telling people that I do not pretend to adduce direct evidence of
one species changing into another, but that I believe that this view in the main is correct,
because so many phenomena can be thus grouped together and explained.
But it is generally of no use; I cannot make persons see this. I generally throw in their
teeth the universally admitted theory of the undulation of light, -- neither the undulation
nor the very existence of ether being proved, yet admitted because the view explains so
much.”
Darwin to F.W. Hutton, 1861.
7.
“To me the geographical distribution, I mean the relation of islands to continents is the
most convincing of the proofs, and the relation of the oldest forms to the existing
species.”
Erasmus Darwin to Charles Darwin, 1859.
8.
“Until I tried, with Mr. Berkeley’s aid, a few experiments, it was not even known how far
seeds could resist the injurious action of sea-water. To my surprise I found that out of 87
kinds, 64 germinated after an immersion of 28 days, and a few survived an immersion of
137 days.”
Darwin, Origin (1859), 358.
9.
“Suppose a white man to have been wrecked on an island inhabited by negroes …; grant
him every advantage which we can conceive a white to possess over the native; concede
that in the struggle for existence his chance of a long life will be much superior to that of
the native chiefs; … . We might expect the throne for some generations to be occupied
by a more or less yellow king; but can anyone believe that the whole island will gradually
acquire a white, or even a yellow population, … ?
Fleeming Jenkin, Review of Origin, 1867.
10.
“… whatever may be thought or said about Mr. Darwin’s doctrines, or the manner in
which he has propounded them, this much is certain, that in a dozen years the ‘Origin of
Species’ has worked as complete a revolution in Biological Science as the ‘Principia’ did
in Astronomy;”
T.H. Huxley, 1871.
11.
“…with this virtual negation of God the universe to me has lost its soul of loveliness…”
George Romanes, 1878.
12.
“Railing against men for the importance they place on beauty, youth, and fidelity is like
railing against meat eaters because they prefer animal protein. Telling men not to
become aroused by signs of youth and health is like telling them not to experience sugar
as sweet.”
David Buss, 1994.
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