Darwin's Influence

It's my belief that Jean-Baptiste Lamark had a tremendous influence on Darwin's thoughts, studies, and theories developed about evolution. The nature of Jean-Baptiste Lamark's studies are very in tune with what Darwin went on to discover. Ultimately, Jean-Baptiste Lamark was a tremendously positive influence on Charles Darwin.

Jean-Baptiste Lamark was a French naturalist, biologist, botanist, academic, and former soldier. He was among the first to propose that evolution happens in accordance with natural laws and not "magically" or by God's hand. Jean-Baptiste Lamark did an extensive study on invertebrates (a term he coined) and published a book on the subject titled Systeme des animaux sans vertebres in 1801.

Perhaps one of his most significant contributions to the scientific community was his theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics. This undoubtedly foreshadowed Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection and the idea that in order to evolve, heritable traits had to be passed on. Darwin built upon this knowledge to eventually come to the conclusion that  evolution does not occur within a generation but rather between generations. This idea was certainly brought on by Jean-Baptiste Lamark's ideas of soft inheritance and his deeper studies of evolutionary theory. Jean-Baptiste Lamark entertained the idea that organisms were adapting to local environments through use and/or disuse of certain characteristics.

It's entirely possible that Charles Darwin may have come to these conclusions on his own but science is never completed in a vacuum. I believe he was influenced by Jean-Baptiste Lamark and expanded on his ideas. The ideas of soft inheritance and Jean-Baptiste Lamark's ideas of evolutionary theory were already earth-shattering in their own right.

The attitude of the church affected Charles Darwin in a way that's somewhat reminiscent of Galileo. The church, at the time (and today), was very resistant to new ideas. In the days of Galileo we see evidence through the church's widespread ideology that believers wanted to be the center of the universe. The idea of them not being the center of the universe actually offended and frightened them. In fact, in frightened them so much that they jailed Galileo for his ideas. When Charles Darwin brought forth On the Origin of Species it's no surprise that the religious community met it with scorn and resistance. This is unfortunate for the church because science brings men nearer to God-like forces that exist naturally through understanding. Eventually Charles Darwin was arrested and accused of trying to spread anti-Christian ideas. It's apparent that the attitude of the church is one of rigidness and an unwillingness to change. This is sort of ironic because they too are forced to recognize science's leaps and bounds as a result of human's evolution and growth as a species.

It's quite tragic that religions are so uncompromising and inflexible in their ideology. Still, it is very brave of men like Galileo and Darwin to stand by their discoveries. The world is better for it.