Who Was Charles Darwin?

Birth, Family and Religious Ties:

Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shropshire, England to wealthy society doctor, financier and freethinker Robert Darwin and Susannah (Wedgewood) Darwin. Darwin and his siblings were raised primarily Unitarian, though they had Anglican ties through their mother.  When aged only eight years old, his mother died, causing him a great deal of personal hardship.  

Education:

In 1817 Darwin began attending a Unitarian day school, but the following year became a boarding student at the Anglican Shrewsbury School.  He spent the summer of 1825 apprenticing with his father in medicine and in the fall attended the University of Edinburgh to study medicine.  However, he was revolted by the practice of surgery and neglected his studies. During his second year he joined the Plinian Society, a group of student natural history buffs. He developed an interest in evolutionary theory through his relationship with Dr. Robert Edmund Grant, who studied anatomy and the life cycles of marine animals.  Darwin was influenced by his father's and Grant's research into evolutionary theory, inherited characteristics and homology (the study of similar characteristics of internal organs pointing to a common ancestor).

Darwin failed to vigorously pursue his medical studies and so left Edinburgh and began attending Christ's College in Cambridge in January 1828 to become an Anglican parson at the insistence of his father.  Still finding course studying tiresome, he developed a great interest in his beetle collection, entomology and botany.  He did manage to pull it together, however, and in January of 1831 he performed well in theology and managed a passing grade in classics, mathematics and physics.  He stayed on until June, studying the theories for a divine design within nature and natural philosophy and the understanding of nature through through inductive reasoning based on observation.  He greatly desired to contribute to make his own scientific travels and planned to visit Tenerife to study natural history in tropics.  His dreams were finally realized through a different venue when he was recommended for the unpaid position of gentleman companion for Robert FitzRoy, captain of the HMS Beagle for its second voyage, (because the previous captain had committed suicide and there were those who felt that if the new captain had a friend and confidant during the long time at sea, he would have better mental health) which was to leave on an expedition to chart the coastline of South America.

The Voyage of the HMS Beagle:

Throughout the voyage Darwin collected, dissected or made notes on a variety of species, though primarily sea creatures.  He had some knowledge on geology, beetles and marine invertebrates, but otherwise he collected samples for analyses by experts.  He made various observations throughout this extended journey; however, his most well-known is when they arrived at the Galapagos Islands and he was intrigued how the natives could determine which island the tortoises were from simply by the shape of their shell.

Darwin's Theories:

On November 24, 1859, Darwin Published "On the Origin of the Species" in which he explained his theory of natural selection.  He simply stated it in the introduction thus:

"As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form."

His only reference to how this might apply to humanity was, "light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history".  He avoided the controversial term "evolution", but strongly emphasized "common descent".

In 1871 Darwin published "The Descent of Man", he argued that humans are animals and presented sexual selection to explain superfluous animal features as well as human evolution of culture, differences between sexes, and physical and cultural racial characteristics, while still acknowledging humans were all of one species.  He concluded thus, "that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system–with all these exalted powers–Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin."

In 1872 Darwin published "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" and in 1880 "The Power of Movement in Plants".

Death:

Charles Darwin died in Kent, England on April 19, 1882.  Despite rumors that he had denounced his theories and converted to Christianity on his deathbed, this has been unfounded.  His wife and cousin, Emma Wedgewood, remained a devout Anglican Christian until her death, despite how Charles had relinquished his last remaining strains of faith upon the death of their 10-year-old daughter, Annie.