Historical Influences on Darwin

There were many scientists in Darwin’s time who influenced his development of the theory of evolution.  Charles Lyell, however had more influence in inspiring and shaping the overall ideas and timeline of the theory of evolution than any other contemporary of Darwin.

Charles Lyell was a geologist who believed in “geological uniformitarianism”, which was the belief in gradual, slow and methodical changes to the earth over thousands of years.    (http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/_0/history_12).  Lyell believed that the face of the earth’s topography had been developed through subtle changes due to “wind, water erosion, flooding, frost, decomposed vegetable matter, volcanoes, earthquakes and glacial movements.” (Physical Anthropology, p. 31)   This idea of gradual and very slow changes to the geology of the earth made the earth much older than previously thought, according to his theories.  His idea of this new longer time line was in great contradiction to the current accepted idea of creationism, which focused on more catastrophic events such as those related in the Bible,  and created much debate in the scientific community regarding the age of the earth. 

Lyell’s work heavily influenced Darwin’s train of thought.  As Darwin studied and applied this new longer time line to his theory of evolution in the world of biology, he was able to determine that the changes he saw in plants and animals were made over more gradual periods of time.  This led him to the conclusion that individuals do not evolve during their lifetimes, but rather populations evolve over generations.  Evolution occurring between generations is a major component to the theory of evolution and a direct result of Lyell’s work in geology and theory of uniformitarianism.

Without Charles Lyell’s influence, it is doubtful that Darwin would have been able to complete his work.  It was during Darwin’s 5 year voyage aboard the Beagle that he studied Lyell’s works and theories and became inspired by the varied species of life he encountered and yet could not explain without the application of Lyell’s theories.  Darwin and Lyell were also friends and colleagues.  While Darwin was reluctant to publish his findings, Lyell was a constant encouragement.  It was eventually at Lyell’s urging that Darwin published The Origin of Species and presented his work to the rest of the world.

 

While Darwin was ever more convinced of the theory of evolution, he was also conflicted about his findings due to the vast influence of the Church and his own beliefs that he was brought up with.  He was a well respected man from an educated and respected family and well aware of other scientists whose reputations had been undone when their published works were contradictory to biblical accounts supported by the Church.  Darwin was also a large supporter of the church and gave charitably of his time and money to his local parish in Downs.  (http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwin-and-the-church-article)  His conflict, both with the views of his spouse (who was very religious) and the Church, was the main reason that he delayed publishing The Origin of Species as long as he did.  His overwhelming and continued evidence of his scientific findings, however and the added evidence of his contemporary, Russell Wallace, who was also independently developing the idea of natural selection in evolution, eventually convinced him to publish his work and the theory of evolution.