It is interesting to think about the ways in which Charles Darwin still exerts an influence on modern life. The obvious influence is in the conduct of biological science and natural history. The less obvious influence is on the political and social milieu in this country. Charles Darwin's work and thought incites some religious conservatives to fury. His view of life and the nature of human being is at the center of dispute between religious and political conservatives and their more liberal opponents.
The intent in the following pages is to briefly explore Darwin's work and world view in order to understand both the revolutionary nature of his views at the time they were promulgated and the continuing controversy about those views.
Charles Darwin was very much a product of his times. He was born in England in 1809 and raised in a wealthy, protective family. He was not forced to work for his living and was able to be somewhat of an intellectual dilettante during his early life. This enabled him to gain the kind of intellectual background that was to serve him well on his voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle and in pulling together the diversity of information in the natural history and scientific realm that served as the foundation for his theory.
Darwin also seemed to be something of a hypochondriac during his youth, with his palpitations and fear that he would have a heart attack. His inability to focus on one particular thing, before the voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle, was a problem for him both emotionally and intellectually.
For someone who was considered to be an out and out radical because of his theory, he was clearly not. Interestingly enough, his theories are currently used to undergird a more conservative Social Darwinism, but he was himself a political liberal. He was involved with some of the more radical thinkers of his day, although his wealth and background kept him a member of the social conservatives i...