Darwin
In his book "Origin of the Species", he proves himself to
be a very fair-minded person and scientist.
In addition to advocating his theory of natural selection as an
explanation for (a) progressive improvement in the characteristics
of members of a species, and (b) that slight variations in members
of a species could lead to creation of a new species; he also
sets forth in detail the intellectual difficulties with his
theory.
He candidly states that he is unable to explain how life began,
and that this is outside the scope of his book; or the "Origin of
the Species" in the first place.
Darwin makes much of the variations people can achieve through
conscious manipulation and direction of the mating process of
domestic animals, and by implication posits that if variations
can be achieved by the consious intervention of man, then varia-
tions will occur by the accidental randomness of nature.
But although he often alludes to the existence of God, he does
not advance the hypothesis that God could have used evolution in
the creation process.
(A personal observation on the idea of humans being descendents
of a lower form of life. In no other species is there such a
wide variation of characteristics, in size from dwarfs to giants,
in skin color, shape of facial features, body types, etc. as is
the case with Homo Sapiens.)
The window of evolutionary opportunity, too, is very, very short,
compared to the millions/billions of years given other evolution-
ary developments.
We are talking of 47,500 years between Homo Neanderthalensis and
early Mousterian Man (50,000 B.C.) and the statue of King Myceri-
nus and his queen (2,530 B.C.) revealing all the facial and body
features of modern man and woman.
That something dramatic occured about 4000-2500 B.C. is apparent.
The earliest historic evidence of modern man in Egypt is 3100
B.C. with the First Dynasty; the earliest evidence in India is
2500 B.C. with a well-preserved statue of a male torso from Har-
appa in the West Punjab; the earliest evidence in Mesopotamia
dates from circa 3000 B.C.
------------
We recommend to anyone trying to comprehend life in all its many
forms that they read Darwin's "Origin of the Species" from cover
to cover. 150 years after it was written, science has not been
able to shed any light on the difficulties to his theory that he
discusses.
We quote from his books, the "Origin of the Species" and "The
Descent or Origin of Man".
Chapter II "Generally the term (species) includes the unknown
element of a distant act of creation".
Chapter III "The causes which check the natural tendency of
each species to increase are most obscure". (Discussing natural
selection and survival of the fittest).
Interaction of plants and animals "Nearly all orchids absolutely
require the visits of insects to fertilize them".
"Visits of bees are necessary for the fertilization of some kinds
of clover".
Chapter IV. "(Man) can neither originate varieties, nor
prevent their occurrence; he can preserve and accommodate such as
do occur".
Chapter VI. Title "Difficulties of the Theory"
"First, why do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional
forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the
species being, as we see them, well defined?"
"Secondly, can we believe that natural selection could produce,
on the one hand, an organ of trifling importance, such as the
tail of a giraffe, which seems as a fly-flapper, and, on the
other hand, an organ so wonderful as the eye?"
"Thirdly, can instincts be acquired and modified through natural
selection?"
"To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for
adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting differ-
ent amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and
chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural select-
ion, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree".
"How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us
more than how life itself originated".
"Have we any right to assume that the Creator works by
intellectual powers like those of man?"
"If we are unable to account for the characteristic differences
of our several domestic breeds, which nevertheless are generally
admitted to have arisen though ordinary generation from one or a
few parent-stocks, we ought not to lay too much stress on our
ignorance of the precise cause of the slight analogous differ-
ences between true species".
"(Some naturalists) believe that many structures have been
created for the sake of beauty, to delight man".
"Can we consider the sting of the bee as perfect, which, when
used against many kinds of enemies, cannot be withdrawn, owing to
the backward serratures, and thus inevitably causes the death of
the incest by tearing out his viscera?"
Chapter VII
"Asserted that the weakest part of my theory is, that I consider
all organic beings as imperfect: what I have really said is,
that all are not as perfect as they might have been in relation
to their conditions".
"Longevity is a great advantage to all species, so that he who
believes in natural selection...that all the descendents have
longer lives than their progenetors!"
"Why have some animals had their mental powers more highly
developed than others, as such development would be advantageous
to all?"
Chapter VIII
"Many instincts are so wonderful that their development will
probably appear to the reader a difficulty sufficient to
overthrow my whole theory. I may here premise that I have
nothing to do with the origin of the mental powers, any more than
I have nothing to do with that of life itself.
Chapter X
On "innumerable intermediate links not now occurring everywhere
throughout nature.
"Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely-graduated
organic chain, and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious
objection which can be urged against the theory".
Chapter XI
"Scarcely any palaeontological discovery is more striking than the
fact that the forms of life change almost simultaneously through-
out the world".
The Descent or Origin of Man
"Many unfortunately are still opposed to evolution in every form"
(Chiefs in natural science).
Human characteristics: erect, shape of skull, nakedness
(hairless except for head), absence of a tail, every individual
different except identical twins, opposing thumb, speech, smaller
canine teeth, color of skin".
Chapter II
"The Duke of Argyll, for instance, insists that, the human frame
has diverged from the structure of brutes, in the direction of
greater physical helplessness and weakness. That is to say, it
is a divergence which of all other is the most impossible to
ascribe to mere natural selection".
Chapter III
Universal belief in unseen or spirited agencies, or God.
Chapter IV
"I fully subscribe to the judgement of those writers who maintain
that of all the differences between man and the lower animals,
the moral sense of conscience is by far the most important".
Chapter VI
"The great break in the organic chain between man and his nearest
allies, which cannot be bridged over by any extinct or living
species, has often been advanced as a grave objection to the
belief that man is descended from some lower form".
(The famous "missing link")
Chapter XXI
"Many of the views which have been advanced are highly
speculative, and some no doubt will prove erroneous".
"The high standard of our intellectual power and moral
disposition is the greatest difficulty which presents itself".
"Man...has few or no special instincts."
"The idea of a universal and beneficient Creator does not seem to
arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-
continued culture".
"Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree of his
horses, cattle and dogs before he matches them."
----------
be a very fair-minded person and scientist.
In addition to advocating his theory of natural selection as an
explanation for (a) progressive improvement in the characteristics
of members of a species, and (b) that slight variations in members
of a species could lead to creation of a new species; he also
sets forth in detail the intellectual difficulties with his
theory.
He candidly states that he is unable to explain how life began,
and that this is outside the scope of his book; or the "Origin of
the Species" in the first place.
Darwin makes much of the variations people can achieve through
conscious manipulation and direction of the mating process of
domestic animals, and by implication posits that if variations
can be achieved by the consious intervention of man, then varia-
tions will occur by the accidental randomness of nature.
But although he often alludes to the existence of God, he does
not advance the hypothesis that God could have used evolution in
the creation process.
(A personal observation on the idea of humans being descendents
of a lower form of life. In no other species is there such a
wide variation of characteristics, in size from dwarfs to giants,
in skin color, shape of facial features, body types, etc. as is
the case with Homo Sapiens.)
The window of evolutionary opportunity, too, is very, very short,
compared to the millions/billions of years given other evolution-
ary developments.
We are talking of 47,500 years between Homo Neanderthalensis and
early Mousterian Man (50,000 B.C.) and the statue of King Myceri-
nus and his queen (2,530 B.C.) revealing all the facial and body
features of modern man and woman.
That something dramatic occured about 4000-2500 B.C. is apparent.
The earliest historic evidence of modern man in Egypt is 3100
B.C. with the First Dynasty; the earliest evidence in India is
2500 B.C. with a well-preserved statue of a male torso from Har-
appa in the West Punjab; the earliest evidence in Mesopotamia
dates from circa 3000 B.C.
------------
We recommend to anyone trying to comprehend life in all its many
forms that they read Darwin's "Origin of the Species" from cover
to cover. 150 years after it was written, science has not been
able to shed any light on the difficulties to his theory that he
discusses.
We quote from his books, the "Origin of the Species" and "The
Descent or Origin of Man".
Chapter II "Generally the term (species) includes the unknown
element of a distant act of creation".
Chapter III "The causes which check the natural tendency of
each species to increase are most obscure". (Discussing natural
selection and survival of the fittest).
Interaction of plants and animals "Nearly all orchids absolutely
require the visits of insects to fertilize them".
"Visits of bees are necessary for the fertilization of some kinds
of clover".
Chapter IV. "(Man) can neither originate varieties, nor
prevent their occurrence; he can preserve and accommodate such as
do occur".
Chapter VI. Title "Difficulties of the Theory"
"First, why do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional
forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the
species being, as we see them, well defined?"
"Secondly, can we believe that natural selection could produce,
on the one hand, an organ of trifling importance, such as the
tail of a giraffe, which seems as a fly-flapper, and, on the
other hand, an organ so wonderful as the eye?"
"Thirdly, can instincts be acquired and modified through natural
selection?"
"To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for
adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting differ-
ent amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and
chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural select-
ion, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree".
"How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us
more than how life itself originated".
"Have we any right to assume that the Creator works by
intellectual powers like those of man?"
"If we are unable to account for the characteristic differences
of our several domestic breeds, which nevertheless are generally
admitted to have arisen though ordinary generation from one or a
few parent-stocks, we ought not to lay too much stress on our
ignorance of the precise cause of the slight analogous differ-
ences between true species".
"(Some naturalists) believe that many structures have been
created for the sake of beauty, to delight man".
"Can we consider the sting of the bee as perfect, which, when
used against many kinds of enemies, cannot be withdrawn, owing to
the backward serratures, and thus inevitably causes the death of
the incest by tearing out his viscera?"
Chapter VII
"Asserted that the weakest part of my theory is, that I consider
all organic beings as imperfect: what I have really said is,
that all are not as perfect as they might have been in relation
to their conditions".
"Longevity is a great advantage to all species, so that he who
believes in natural selection...that all the descendents have
longer lives than their progenetors!"
"Why have some animals had their mental powers more highly
developed than others, as such development would be advantageous
to all?"
Chapter VIII
"Many instincts are so wonderful that their development will
probably appear to the reader a difficulty sufficient to
overthrow my whole theory. I may here premise that I have
nothing to do with the origin of the mental powers, any more than
I have nothing to do with that of life itself.
Chapter X
On "innumerable intermediate links not now occurring everywhere
throughout nature.
"Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely-graduated
organic chain, and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious
objection which can be urged against the theory".
Chapter XI
"Scarcely any palaeontological discovery is more striking than the
fact that the forms of life change almost simultaneously through-
out the world".
The Descent or Origin of Man
"Many unfortunately are still opposed to evolution in every form"
(Chiefs in natural science).
Human characteristics: erect, shape of skull, nakedness
(hairless except for head), absence of a tail, every individual
different except identical twins, opposing thumb, speech, smaller
canine teeth, color of skin".
Chapter II
"The Duke of Argyll, for instance, insists that, the human frame
has diverged from the structure of brutes, in the direction of
greater physical helplessness and weakness. That is to say, it
is a divergence which of all other is the most impossible to
ascribe to mere natural selection".
Chapter III
Universal belief in unseen or spirited agencies, or God.
Chapter IV
"I fully subscribe to the judgement of those writers who maintain
that of all the differences between man and the lower animals,
the moral sense of conscience is by far the most important".
Chapter VI
"The great break in the organic chain between man and his nearest
allies, which cannot be bridged over by any extinct or living
species, has often been advanced as a grave objection to the
belief that man is descended from some lower form".
(The famous "missing link")
Chapter XXI
"Many of the views which have been advanced are highly
speculative, and some no doubt will prove erroneous".
"The high standard of our intellectual power and moral
disposition is the greatest difficulty which presents itself".
"Man...has few or no special instincts."
"The idea of a universal and beneficient Creator does not seem to
arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-
continued culture".
"Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree of his
horses, cattle and dogs before he matches them."
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