The Origin of Species

Widely regarded as a Keystone for evolutionary theories, on the origin of species by British naturalist Charles Robert Darwin, has influenced modern Western society and thought. Br>darwin’s bold theory initially shocked religious Victorian society by its audacious suggestion that animals and humans shared a common ancestry. His nonreligious Biology found a following in the emerging Class of scientists. Formulated in 1837-39 post his famous voyage around the world aboard HMS Beagle where as a naturalist, he kept collecting data in support of his theory, he published this in 1859. On the origin of species is an “abstract” of natural selection centered on the principles of evolution, natural selection, mutation and variation. Its premise is that plants and animals produce more numbers than can be sustained in each generation. These numbers vary in characteristics that are both physical and behaviour and these are passed on to the next generation. Those who adapt to their changing environments are likely to survive, what remains essentially, a numbers game. The book also covers in great detail, the intellectual, social and religious cross-currents that Darwin had to navigate to develop and propagate his theory as well as the challenges to the acceptance of his work posed by his peers and critics. Br>darwin’s work has become a foundational text of the sciences and he was accorded the ultimate british honour – that of a burial in westminster Abbey, London.