Darwin's Theory of Evolution

Charles Darwin, the 19th century biologist/naturalist, created a social and moral upheaval by his Theory of Evolution in 1869. According to Darwin man or any other living being was not 'created' as is by an all-knowing and omnipresent God. Rather, the various species of living beings 'evolved' through a process of 'natural selection' over immense span of geological times (literally millions and millions of years.) This concept that man, the penultimate of all life came into this present form by natural selection via other species was as mind shattering to the European and American sentiment as Copernicus's theory of Sun centred world view. Copernicus was jailed for saying this because it dislodged the primacy of Earth and its inhabitants as the centre of the universe or rather reason for its existence. Darwin made a similar exposition - he challenged conservative religious belief in the supremacy of humans and the concept that man is created in the image of the Almighty himself.

Darwin's study of finches on the Galapagos Islands on the western side of Africa sparked the idea of how a species change over long periods of time and why. According to Darwin, the 'most fittest' members of a species survive to propagate and therefore transfer their genes to the next generation. This process of 'selection of the fittest' by no means refer to some inherent 'superiority of some members, it refers to their having traits that are most adaptable to the natural environment. Those who are ill-fitted or unable to adapt are doomed to extinction. For example, if being long-beaked is essential for catching food for finches, then those with long beaks have the most probable chance of being fed and thus reaching maturity to reproduce and thus perpetuate their kind. Those having rounded or small beaks will find it difficult to feed and eventually die out. 

The implication of this theory for humans was mind-boggling and startling to the stiff upper lipped English society. It meant that humans have evolved from other simpler species. This does not necessarily mean that man is descended from apes, it means that they share a distinct genetic makeup. They have come from a common ancestor but over time have developed differently. Apes and humans have more in common than apes and chimpanzees.

The theory of evolution of species by means of natural selection is a beautiful and logical explanation for unity and diversity of different life forms in the world. It also explains the presence of fossils of species that no longer exist, having failed to win the battle of existence. 

Darwin revolutionised the western world view, his theory on the origin of species  literally altered the accepted view of humans for all times to come. Man was just another animal which had acquired its present state through incremental and time consuming evolution from other species. Man had acquired his attributes not by a predestined design rather by chance. This meant that there is no designer of the human race and other living things in the concept of an airplane engineer who plans and designs a plane for a specific purpose in advance - flying. The probability of an airplane coming into existence by merely throwing in parts of it in a pile are next to impossible. But, in human development chance had played out that minuscule chance  in response to the environment which governed it.

The postulate of Darwin are beautiful and most attuned to reason.