PSYCHOLOGY & ME: CHARLES DARWIN

CHARLES DARWIN

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. He was born to a wealthy, religious family. His dad was a freethinker. However, he had his children brought up going to church. Darwin was the fifth of six children. His mother died when he was still young. On December 27th, 1831, Darwin set out on the H.S.S. Beagle for a 5 year journey around the world. Through this journey, he was able to learn about different species, see different ways of life, and study geology. The theory of natural selection is basically the idea of ‘survival of the fittest’. That is to say, that only the strongest will survive. In the case of birds, only the kinds that have the best way of collecting food shall survive. Eventually, the species with the weaker features shall die out. The same is true with all living things. Charles Darwin lived during a very religious time. His wife was incredibly religious, this caused him anguish on whether or not to publish his works. His idea, he thought, killed the idea of a God. He believed in evolution. That is, that we all came from monkeys and the monkeys came from some animal, and the cycle continues. Basically, we came from a bacteria or something incredibly small, and over the course of millions of years, humans came to evolve. This kills the idea that God created the world in seven days. Darwin knew if he published his work, then either a) people would no longer believe in God, or b) they would hate him for even suggesting this new idea. In the end, Darwin did publish his works. His most famous book is called “On the Origin of Species”.