Charles Lyell was a profound Geologist of his day. He was best known for his concepts of uniformitarianism. A concept that our earth is ever evolving in minuet ways but over a span of time has a major impact. Meaning the weather and constant natural elements are what created our present geological landscape and will continue to have an impact on our future. (source; victorianweb.org)
The idea that individuals do not evolve but populations do is an ideal supported by Lyell's theories. He believes that changes occur on a consistent basis but are usually ever so slight. Once you look at the evolution of geological measure over a lengthy period of time you find them to be more profound. It takes time for evolution to take place. This theory supports that environments change and the inhabitants have to adapt. These changes have to be ever so slight because if they become catastrophic species will be eliminated and the it will be more of a struggle to balance out the environment as well as it's inhabitants.
People cannot change their genetics within their own lifetime. When a series of generations have developed, that is when the genetic makeup provide more evidence that they have evolved.
Lyell had a major impact on Darwin's theory of natural selection. Lyell's theory of geological evolution gave Darwin the foundation and process in which he used to investigate his theory. Without the geological evolution there would be less of a need for the natural selection of species. Without environmental change the inhabitants would not have to evolve to survive. There would not be a "Survival of the fittest". It was said Lyell's geological findings are what inspired Darwin to start investigating the theory of evolution.
Lyell and Darwin's ideals did not always have the same intent. Lyell's goals seemed more to support the bible's teachings as Darwin's seemed more to challenge the beliefs taught though the Bible. Darwin's book "On the Origin of Species" was a threat to the foundations of the church. The theory of disproving the origin of man originally taught in the Bible would crumble the foundation of the church. Elitists thought it was an insult to their upbringing because it questioned what they believed as hundreds of years of teachings and ideals. This slowed Darwin's enthusiasm to publish his works. Darwin gained confidence to publish his book when more authors and scientists were beginning to introduce the idea to the public.
Morning, Blair!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post, you presented some very well thought out points-- specifically those that embellished on just what kind of threat Darwin's hypothesis posed to the Church. You made a good point, especially on insulting their upbringing, more so than just a broad statement of "the Church wouldn't like it".
Good explanation of uniformitarianism. Can you carry this further, however, and demonstrate how this concept applied or contributed directly to Darwin's work?
ReplyDeleteLyell was, in part, challenging the idea that the earth was a mere 6000 years old, which was the generally accepted, church-influenced, belief at that time. Uniformitarianism argued (as you correctly explain) that the earth is the result of slow, constant forces occuring over very long periods of time. We are talking millions (actually billions) of years, not just thousands. This "old earth" concept was crucial to Darwin because Natural Selection also requires a long time for the natural forces of evolution, which also acted slowly and constantly, to produce not only all of the living organisms but the extinct ones as well. Lyell literally provided Darwin with the time he needed for his theory to work. That is the reason Lyell was so important to Darwin, aside from his personal support to Darwin as a good friend.
I'm not clear on how your choice of bullet points apply to Lyell? Lyell actually (and ironically) didn't support the idea of evolutionary theory, and his work had nothing to do with the idea of change in individuals OR populations, nor would he have dealt with heritability as a geologist. Lyell's work would have applied to the idea of the influence of the environment, as you see parallels between the slow, constant environmental forces shaping the earth with the slow, constant environmental forces shaping organisms from Darwin's theory. It is also important to note that the concept of an "old earth" was at least equally important as a contribution, though there is no bullet point to match that to.
"Without the geological evolution there would be less of a need for the natural selection of species. "
I love that sentence, though I would replace "need" with something else... how about "empirical support"? But beyond that, Lyell's concept of an "old earth" was actually indispensable to Darwin. His theory didn't work without it. Aside from that, Lyell was a friend to Darwin and was one of the key figures who encouraged Darwin to publish and actually helped him through the process of publishing after it became apparent that Darwin had competition for his theory through Wallace. I truly don't think Darwin would have developed or published his ideas successfully without Lyell.
With regard to your last section:
"Lyell's goals seemed more to support the bible's teachings"
Well, since Lyell was contradicting the Church's official age of the church, I can't agree with this statement.
"The theory of disproving the origin of man originally taught in the Bible would crumble the foundation of the church."
I suggest this is applying too much importance to Darwin's theory. His ideas don't attack the foundation of the Church's teachings, but that doesn't mean the Church would have been happy to accept anything that opposed any of their teachings.
"Elitists thought it was an insult to their upbringing because it questioned what they believed as hundreds of years of teachings and ideals."
No one, except for a small circle of friends, knew about this theory until it was published, so there wouldn't have been direct pressure not to publish. This doesn't mean the church's influence didn't have an impact on Darwin's decision to publish. Darwin delayed for more than 20 years before publishing. So what caused his delay? What were his concerns? And how are they related to the influence of the Church during Darwin's time?
I really enjoyed reading your blog, Although we picked different influences to Darwin's theory, you had some great points. Nice job!
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