History †Western Civilization Essay

Darwins view on natural selection is that man incessantly presents individual differences in all part of his body and in his mental faculties. These differences or variations seem to be induced by the same general causes, and to obey the same laws as with the lower animals. In both cases similar laws of inheritance prevail. Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his means of subsistence consequently he is occasionally subjected to a arch struggle for existence, and natural selection will have effected whatever lies within its scope.A succession of strongly-marked variations of a similar nature is by no means requisite slight fluctuating differences in the individual suffice for the work of natural selection not for any reason to suppose that in the same species, all parts of the organization tend to vary to the same degree. It may be assuring that the inherited effects of the long-continued use or neglect of parts will have done ofttimes in the same direction with natural s election.Modifications formerly of importance, though no longer of any limited use, are long-inherited. When one part is modified, some other parts change through the principle of correlation, of which we have instances in many curious cases of correlated monstrosities. Something may be attributed to the direct and definite action of the surrounding conditions of life, such as abundant food, heat or moisture and lastly, many characters of slight physiological importance, some and so of considerable importance, have been gained through sexual selection.The belief in God has often been advanced as not only the greatest, but the most utter(a) of all the trenchantions between man and the lower animals. It is however impossible to maintain that this belief is innate or instinctive in man. On the other debate a belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies seems to be familiar and apparently follows from a considerable advance in mans reason, and from a shut up greater advance in his faculties of imagination, curiosity and wonder.Darwins aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for His existence. But this is a rash argument, as one thus is compelled to believe in the existence of many cruel and malignant spirits, only a little more powerful than man for the belief in them is far more general than in a beneficent Deity. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man, until one has been elevated by long-continued culture.Darwins view on race talks about modifications acquired independently of selection, and due to variations arising from the nature of the organism and the action of the surrounding conditions, or from changed habits of life, no single pair will have been modified much more than the other pairs inhabiting the same country, for all will have been continually blended through free intercrossing. Since man attained to the rank of manhood, he has diverged int o distinct races, or as they may be more fitly called, sub-species.Some of these, such as the Negro and European, are so distinct that, if specimens had been brought to a natural scientist without any further information, they would undoubtedly have been considered by him as good and true species. Nevertheless all the races agree in so many idle details of structure and in so many mental peculiarities that these can be accounted for only by inheritance from a common progenitor and a progenitor thus characterized would probably deserve to rank as man.But it must not be supposed that the divergence of each race from the other races, and of all from a common stock, can be traced back to any one pair of progenitors.REFERENCEDarwin, C. (1874). The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. new York A. L. Burt. Hart, M. (1992). The descent of man the origin of species. Retrieved August 15, 2006, from the Great Literature Book-Worm org Web sitehttp//www. book-worm. org/darwin-char les/the-descent-of-man/chapter-21. html