How Did The American Revolution Influence Charles Darwin's World View

The scientific revolution established the new view of the universe. During this period people were finally beginning to define the scientific method and apply it to search for the truth. The scientific ideas of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries overturned many of the most fundamental ideas of the medieval worldview. New knowledge of the physical world provided occasions for challenging the authority of the church and of scripture. The new ideas then began to displace and reshape religious models of thought. Even though the scientific revolution exposed humankind to the truths of the world, the new science posed a potential challenge to religion.

There are two scientists that completely changed the way we see the world, and they might not have even known it. Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel are two small town scientists that made two different discoveries that will change the way we think about genetics

Darwin’s ideas were seen in culture as so drastically different from all his predecessors. They were unheard of, and revolutionary. Because of their unorthodox quality, individuals and people groups did not know how to respond

During the first half of the century, the majority of what science did was catalog nature. There were some who performed experiments, but it was unorganized and unstructured. Science was not really taught in school; they focused more on natural history. However, in the middle of the century, science education was introduced from the collegiate level. There was the idea that species change over time, but Darwin introduced a common origin of life. Humans were part of the animal kingdom and not separate from nature. Darwin’s introduction of this idea was hard for many Americans to accept. Agassiz was troubled by the loss of special creation; essentially the loss of God’s direction or plan. They did not like the fact that Darwin argued natural forces drive evolution rather than moral forces. It created a crisis of faith because science did not fit into a moral sense of the world. It forced a disassociation between culture and nature; what humans do was not unified with the natural world. Breaks the idea of natural laws; humans can create human principles, but cannot claim they are natural laws. Some manipulated Darwin’s ideas in order to justify racism. Social Darwinists argued that certain races possessed particular traits which make them better than

New scientific ideas also put religion and the beliefs of church doctrines in turmoil. As humanism during the Reformation and Revolution period brought into question predestination and salvation, science brought into question the literal words of the Bible. Darwin’s concept of natural selection brought into question the entire belief of Creationism and the existence of one great God. His philosophy could not grasp the concept of predestination much as Humanism movement did during the Reformation and

Wallace, King and Sanders wrote in Biosphere, The Realm of Life: "In 1859, Charles Darwin published a theory of evolution that implied that humans evolved from apes. . .The Darwinian revolution was the greatest paradigm shift in the history of biology, and it greatly changed the way that ordinary men and women viewed their own place in the world." (1)

Ideas in science, especially astronomy and human anatomy, changed how many viewed man and led to a path of enlightenment. One example of the variation in science was the shift from a geocentric to a heliocentric universe. Pre-renaissance the Catholic Church conveyed that the center of the universe was earth. At the time, arguing with the church was considered a sin, so rarely did anyone try to contradict this idea. The geocentric viewpoint had been long affirmed until Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer, reversed this idea, solely based off of mathematics and observations. Promptly after during the Renaissance, scholars studied Ptolemy and realized the idea that the center of the universe was actually the sun, not the earth. The heliocentric doctrine that Copernicus came up with was first denied because the Catholic church had claimed the earth, and humans, were at the center of everything, and the universe revolves around man. This was a real epiphany to people at the time because it made them rethink that perhaps without them being the center of the universe they aren't the most important things. This helped to expand means, though out of just religion and themselves. These ideas changed how many viewed man because it was proven that humans were not the center of the

The Scientific Revolution not only led to countless inventions that changed the way of life, but changed people’s perspectives on many subjects such as the natural world. Copernicus changed the traditional view of the universe from an earth centered theory to a sun centered theory based on data collected from his predecessors in the field of astronomy. The key to proving this new view of the universe was the collaboration of other scientists, such as Galileo, and the usage of new astronomical instruments, particularly the telescope. The telescope allowed systematic observations of the universe, which ultimately supported the heliocentric view of the universe. This new view questioned everything that was fundamental to the Christian faith, which infuriated the Catholic Church (Spielvogel 475-480, 493).

The birth of modern science created conflict between religion and science in European societies. With the conflicts, the people had started to question the church. These conflicted changes between religion and science, had positively impacted the common people and had greatly damaged the stability of the church itself. The idea that everything was to be perfect affected the communities of the people. The ideas that the church had displayed in decades past, rejected any further discoveries or advancements that they didn’t see fit.

These changes have affected people’s views on religion, politics, culture, and technology. Through all these views there has been one key person, invention, or philosophy that pushed a person’s view to reality. Area 1: Religion-Pascal Religion in Western Civilization has had crazy historical changes for better or worse. Within all these historical marks, none had a greater impact on Religious views than Science. Science and Religion have been

During the 18th century, the way science, politics, and philosophy were perceived changed radically due to the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment introduced the idea that people are capable of changing the course of life with knowledge. This period occurred when the Scientific Revolution was just coming to an end and new ideas in science had transformed society. Fields such as math, physics, astronomy, and biology redefined the way mankind viewed nature. Even in this time period, individuals sought glory, and therefore, intended to revolutionize the sciences.

In the 18th century the Scientific revolution ushered a new age of separation between religion and science; As religion became less traditional and people looked at science for the truth, new social changes began in societies such as the United States. The vox populi of these societies became surrounded by wealth and fame. People’s possessions became their basis for morals and daily life. As a result of the split between science and religion during the 1920s, the rise of materialism and individualism dominated society; The characters of The Great Gatsby face the advantages and disadvantages of power that came with this shift in identity.

Darwin’s ideas were debated heavily and allowed people to question their already believed faiths. These made people think in new and different ways. With Darwin’s theory of evolution published, people were debating whether his ideas were sound, “The public debated Darwin’s ideas and the scientific community debated against each other” (Greenberger 39). Darwin’s new and innovative ideas influenced the public into questioning their beliefs and asking whether or not they were accurate. This showed the influence his work had on the public.

The transformations of this period were informed via a brand new mind-set that had its roots within the scientific revolutions of the previous century

There is one man in history who changed everything from the way we see everyday events in the world, and that man is Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin was a scientist who discovered the origin of life through a study on the Galapagos Islands. Before Darwin’s discovery, the world was looked upon as God’s playground where everything happened because of him. For example, if something bad happened to someone’s family like a disease it would be because they have angered God. Darwin lived during the dawn of reasoning and questioning. Men were now asking “how”, and “why”, instead of just accepting it as God’s will. Charles would pave the way of how science would be seen as today and for future generations of the world to come. He showed that humans were created by chance and would change the world looked at life forever. Charles Darwin had a significantly great impact on culture, writing, and religion by showing the world that we are no longer God’s gift, things happened through probability, and the bible is not a book history.