Evolution... essays

Evolution... essays Felix Qui Potuit Rerum Cognoscere Causas Happy is He Who Has Been Able to Learn the Causes of Things -Virgil Charles Darwin, with the publication of The Origin of Species, is recognized as the father of modern evolutionary theory. His revolutionary beliefs and ideas were direct results of contributions to evolutionary thought spanning from ancient Greece to the nineteenth century. These influences included great minds such as Carolus Linnaeus, Erasmus Darwin, Jean Baptiste Lamarck, and Sir Charles Lyell. As time progressed, these thinkers and a wide range of others contributed a growing body of knowledge supporting evolution, and creating a foundation on which Darwin would base his theory of evolution by natural selection. Evolution is defined as the continuous genetic adaptation of organisms or species to the environment by the integrating agencies of selection, and is a combination of science and philosophy explaining how all species originated. Darwins theory of evolution suggests that organisms adapt and respond to their environments, thereby evolving to become better suited to their respective environments. This theory is known as the survival of the fittest, where the most adapted organisms survive and flourish, and the less suited creatures eventually become easier prey and die off. This theory of evolution, also termed natural selection, is nearly universally accepted as the correct explanation of evolution (Stansfield 478). The sciences, especially geology and biology, obviously play a very large role in evolutionary philosophy. Geology is a branch of science that is vital to validate evolution. This science basically gives evolution the timeline for which millions upon millions of creatures can adapt and evolve. Before Sir Charles Lyell proved that the earth was over four billion years old, most believed that it was between five and seven thousand years of age. Obviously, this sort of a...