With 2009 marking the 200-year anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, now is a good time to look back at his life. Not only are his story and science remarkable but also offer solace to anyone struggling with their own spiritual beliefs, even if they are not the antidote to organised religion expressed by some atheists. Only when travelling the world back in 2005 / 06 did I start to seriously question my own religious beliefs, and this was when I first turned to Darwin for consolation and understanding about the origins of human life. His journal, Voyage of the Beagle, was especially good reading material while backpacking in South America for 3 months. Below are my notes on Darwin (split into two parts) based on the recent BBC In Our Time podcasts, and a visit last week to the new Darwin exhibition at the Natural History Museum, both of which I recommend highly.
Born into a rich, middle-class family in 1809, Darwin had a privileged but difficult upbringing, after his mother died when he was just 8 years old. The family were liberal in outlook, and opposed to slavery, and this progressiveness fed into Darwin’s education. He was not a quick learner though, and his father had to pull strings for him to study at Cambridge, where he arrived to train as a clergyman but failed to find his calling at the end of the first year. Darwin paid little attention in lectures and developed mainly under his own steam, preferring outdoor pursuits like shooting, horses and botany, as well as the occasional drink. His real passion was collecting and the natural world, and by switching courses he takes his first steps as a biologist, examining species (especially beetles) and identifying minute differences. A small, early victory for Darwin is seeing some rare beetles he discovers published in an entymology book, which he likens to the “thrill of a poet having a poem published”.
In retrospect, his early Cambridge days are one of the great turning points in intellectual history, when Darwin turns away from religion and sets out on a course that will undermine the cosy, Victorian world of Christianity.
One important figure in his life during this time is William Paley who, despite his complex Creationist views, helped Darwin to reason empirically and logically. Another key figure is John Stevens Henslow, who was 13 years older than Darwin, deeply religious and the paradigm of the Anglican priest. However, Henslow was open to new ideas and the two men become good friends while discussing the natural world on long walks, with Henslow a role model in that he combined the clergy and the natural sciences. Henslow also cultivates in Darwin the idea of patterns in nature, and that “mystery of mysteries”, biological species and their origins. However, at this stage, Darwin had not begun to formulate his theory of evolution, but was getting closer. Henslow was also crucial to another major turning point in Darwin’s life, when he put him forward as a suitable gentleman naturalist to join the Beagle’s 5-year voyage charting the coast of South America.
HMS Beagle was a Royal Navy boat, a 10-gun brig built in Woolwich (my place of birth) that set sail in 1831 from Devonport, Plymouth. With Darwin 22 at the time of the voyage and the ship’s captain Robert FitzRoy just 26, this was boy’s own adventure stuff. FitzRoy and Darwin shared a cabin, and were like chalk and cheese in terms of personality, but somehow got along despite the cramped conditions. The ship had a crew of 70 people, who shared claustrophobic quarters and Darwin underwent the constant misery of sea sickness. To distract him he brought a wide array of reading matter, including Lyell’s Principles of Geology, a recent textbook on earth science and geodynamics. Although a renowned naturalist, Darwin was clearly more interested in geology at the time, with just 360 pages of his notes focusing on zoology compared to 1,400 pages for geology.
Darwin takes extensive notes on the voyage, study patterns, especially in terms of the distribution of fauna, human races and geological features. One idea he cultivated during this time was that one small change, given enough time, could have enormous consequences. However, the famous Galapagos finches were not the “eureka” moment of evolution that some biographers depict, but rather another key step on Darwin’s gradual path of discovery. During the voyage, he remained an avid collector of flora and fauna, and honed his skill for acute observation. Darwin even camped on the Galapagos islands, ate tortoises and noted the difference in taste (what dedication!) as well as appearance, while justifying the slaughtering of so many animals by virtue of his collecting instinct and asking, “why did God create so much beauty out here where no-one can appreciate it?” Of course, a modern mind with just a basic understanding of ecology can see the delicious irony in this naïve question, knowing not only that such beauty was not created by any God but also that humans are responsible for it slowly vanishing.
Born into a rich, middle-class family in 1809, Darwin had a privileged but difficult upbringing, after his mother died when he was just 8 years old. The family were liberal in outlook, and opposed to slavery, and this progressiveness fed into Darwin’s education. He was not a quick learner though, and his father had to pull strings for him to study at Cambridge, where he arrived to train as a clergyman but failed to find his calling at the end of the first year. Darwin paid little attention in lectures and developed mainly under his own steam, preferring outdoor pursuits like shooting, horses and botany, as well as the occasional drink. His real passion was collecting and the natural world, and by switching courses he takes his first steps as a biologist, examining species (especially beetles) and identifying minute differences. A small, early victory for Darwin is seeing some rare beetles he discovers published in an entymology book, which he likens to the “thrill of a poet having a poem published”.
In retrospect, his early Cambridge days are one of the great turning points in intellectual history, when Darwin turns away from religion and sets out on a course that will undermine the cosy, Victorian world of Christianity.
One important figure in his life during this time is William Paley who, despite his complex Creationist views, helped Darwin to reason empirically and logically. Another key figure is John Stevens Henslow, who was 13 years older than Darwin, deeply religious and the paradigm of the Anglican priest. However, Henslow was open to new ideas and the two men become good friends while discussing the natural world on long walks, with Henslow a role model in that he combined the clergy and the natural sciences. Henslow also cultivates in Darwin the idea of patterns in nature, and that “mystery of mysteries”, biological species and their origins. However, at this stage, Darwin had not begun to formulate his theory of evolution, but was getting closer. Henslow was also crucial to another major turning point in Darwin’s life, when he put him forward as a suitable gentleman naturalist to join the Beagle’s 5-year voyage charting the coast of South America.
HMS Beagle was a Royal Navy boat, a 10-gun brig built in Woolwich (my place of birth) that set sail in 1831 from Devonport, Plymouth. With Darwin 22 at the time of the voyage and the ship’s captain Robert FitzRoy just 26, this was boy’s own adventure stuff. FitzRoy and Darwin shared a cabin, and were like chalk and cheese in terms of personality, but somehow got along despite the cramped conditions. The ship had a crew of 70 people, who shared claustrophobic quarters and Darwin underwent the constant misery of sea sickness. To distract him he brought a wide array of reading matter, including Lyell’s Principles of Geology, a recent textbook on earth science and geodynamics. Although a renowned naturalist, Darwin was clearly more interested in geology at the time, with just 360 pages of his notes focusing on zoology compared to 1,400 pages for geology.
Darwin takes extensive notes on the voyage, study patterns, especially in terms of the distribution of fauna, human races and geological features. One idea he cultivated during this time was that one small change, given enough time, could have enormous consequences. However, the famous Galapagos finches were not the “eureka” moment of evolution that some biographers depict, but rather another key step on Darwin’s gradual path of discovery. During the voyage, he remained an avid collector of flora and fauna, and honed his skill for acute observation. Darwin even camped on the Galapagos islands, ate tortoises and noted the difference in taste (what dedication!) as well as appearance, while justifying the slaughtering of so many animals by virtue of his collecting instinct and asking, “why did God create so much beauty out here where no-one can appreciate it?” Of course, a modern mind with just a basic understanding of ecology can see the delicious irony in this naïve question, knowing not only that such beauty was not created by any God but also that humans are responsible for it slowly vanishing.
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