preview

Essay on Analysis of Charles Darwin's on the Origin of Species

Decent Essays

Charles Darwin in his book, On the Origin of Species, presents us with a theory of natural selection. This theory is his attempt at an explanation on how the world and its species came to be the way that we know them now. Darwin writes on how through a process of millions of years, through the effects of man and the effects of nature, species have had a trial and error experiment ongoing. It is through these trials that the natural world has developed beneficial anomalies that at times seem too great to be the work of chance. Darwin writes on how a species will adapt to its surrounding given enough time. When an animal gains a genetic edge over its competitors, be they of the same species or of another genus altogether, the animal …show more content…

Instead Darwin delved into the realm of the Articulata. In the Articulata Darwin found an optic nerve covered with pigment and little more. This nerve is merely a light sensing freckle and can be traced through a series of branching and improvements until we can see it approach perfection. As Darwin states on page 188;
"…bearing in mind how small the number of living animals is in proportion to those that have become extinct, I can see no very great difficulty…in believing that natural selection has converted the simple apparatus of the optic nerve merely coated with pigment and invested by transparent membrane, into an optical instrument as perfect as is possessed by any member of the great Articulate class."
After millions of years of evolution and natural selection, why is it not possible that a thing as perfect as the eye has been developed. It is hard, however, to believe in this whole-heartedly. The more I read of Darwin, the more I begin to see the holes in the theory. My belief does not swing towards the thought of creationism. To me that is not an option. However, Darwin has done a great job of stating the arguments and as best a job answering them as he could. It is very difficult to respond to difficult questions with nothing but theory to back them up. He has, nonetheless, defended them to the best of his abilities and his responses are, with a little faith in science, more than acceptable.
Yet

Get Access