7 Sep 2022

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The Societal and Philosophical Aspects of Darwinism

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Academic level: College

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Charles Darwin was born on the 12th of February 1809, and he lived for seventy-three years. He is a well-renowned geologist and naturalist and a major player in the evolution of man theories (Browne, 2010). According to Darwin, he believed that all the species that are found on the earth had a common ancestor from which they descended. His scientific concept was termed as Darwinism. All the species were said to undergo a natural selection process whereby they inherited petite variations from their descendants that allowed them to have better means of survival, competitions, and reproduction.

According to Darwin’s theory, all the life forms on earth are related and they originate from one common ancestor. With that, it means that the birds, fish, flowers, mammals and other life forms are related. Basing on his concept, it indicates that the complex creatures that exist todays once had a simpler existence from which they have evolved over time. It concludes that an organism undergoes genetic mutation whereby only the beneficial mutations become preserved, and they are later passed to if future generations over time. As time goes by, there is an accumulation of these mutations that lead to the emergence of a totally different organism from its original. This difference is not just seen in the genetic codes but the whole being of the creature.

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According to Edwards, (2011), basing on the Darwinism thought on natural selection, the species that followed the law of the jungle were the only ones that could survive. By applying it to the current 21st century, the human societies have been involved in lots of conflicts and wars that have not just been seen between nations, but also races. In today’s world, some nations have been termed as super powers while some races have been seen as being more superior to others. The emergence of racist views among people has led to the development of human classes in the society. In today’s world, most people still question whether the whites and blacks came from the same species. The answer has been quiet bad for Africans have on numerous occasions been linked to an ape. Of course, this claim has no basis for people having a different skin color or ethnic origin cannot be used to determine who is superior and inferior.

In a country like the USA, the African-American community has been viewed as being inferiors even before the emergence of the civil war (Walker, 2014). Racist remarks are still being made against this community and other minority ethnic groups in the states. The whites term themselves as being more superior. These views by the current generation have been passed through the generations from their ancestors. According to Thompson, (2011), countries that have been termed as super powers have also gone through different phases. Countries like Russia and the USA have been involved in various warfare activities with lots of countries as they tried to spread and stop communism respectively. For the USA, communism did not favor its interest thus it had to destroy the regimes in the countries and allowed for their own chosen leaders to take over. Russia on the other hand was trying to allow the spreading of communism thus aided countries to fight off attacks from the USA. Such relationships led to wars such as the World War I and II. Super power nations are still involving themselves in military actions in countries whereby the regime does not support their interest. This is because, over time, they behave been able to develop sophisticated military weapons such as nuclear bombs which allow them to rule over nations. This is evidently similar to Darwinism concept of “the law of the jungle” whereby one had to apply it so as to survive.

According to Kocandrle and Kleisner (2013), Darwin’s theory of evolutions has a lot of similarities to the old Greek philosophers such as Anaximander. According to him, he believed that man descended from an animal and life developed from non-life entities. The only difference between Anaximander’s theory of evolution and Darwin’s is that the latter was able to bring about the concept of “natural selection.” This means that organisms had the capabilities of accumulating minor genetic mutations over time that allowed them to become better in terms of reproduction, competition, and survival. In case an organism developed a wing and was able to fly, it would pass its genetic codes to its offsprings. The other species that did not have wings would die leaving only the superior species. Darwin’s theory of evolution is supposed to occur gradually over time. For an organism to turn into a complex nature, it had to take tiny leaps in its genetic variations. However, Darwin stated that if there was an organ that could be termed as complex and it did not take the gradual and slight modifications over time, then is theory would have no meaning.

With the current advancements in technology especially in the genetics, molecular, biological and biochemistry fields, Darwin’s scientific assessment is wrong. The advancement has been able to bring forward the existence of thousands of complex system that exist on a cellular level. An example is a bacterial cell that is known to be quite tiny. Inside this cell, there are thousands of other molecular components. This tiny cell is so complex that no human-made machinery can match it existence. Other more complex systems include the heart, an eye and even the ear. One does not have to look at the microscopic elements do get irreducibly complex systems. The existence of such elements clearly disregards Darwin’s theory of evolution (Bene, 2009).

Another factor that disregards Darwin’s theory of evolution is the fact that, according to him, all species have one ancestor. This means that, even though this species is to undergo genetic mutations over time, it cannot change into another species; it would only become more evolved than its descendant. In today’s world, however, there are more than eight million different species. If Darwin’s theory was true, there should be an existence of species that links different animals such as birds to amphibians, reptiles, and fish. The existence of evolution cannot become disregarded for if it is the same species changing or some species not existing today like the dinosaurs, then it’s true.

The major factor that brings about the creation vs. evolution debate is where life forms and the earth originated. Most people in today’s world try to make this debate seem like a religion vs. science whereby the creation aspect is termed as the religious view while the evolution aspect becomes labeled as scientific. According to evolution theories such as Darwinism, the existence of life forms is based on their gradual advancement over time whereby the inferior species is eliminated by the superior species (Page, 2010). It is largely based evolutionary naturalism that was also supported by ancient Greek materialists such as Democritus. According to Darwin, all living things occurred by chance and did not undergo any creation. This means that he does not believe in spirit but only matter. He believed that traits were also transferred from one species to the other whereby antelopes evolved into giraffes and many others.

However, the Islamic religion believes in the creation theory whereby God creates life on earth. They believe that the existence of this life should not be seen as being as though it happened by chance or was accidental. People who tend to follow Darwin’s theory of evolution are regarded as having no moral stand nor values thus do they not believe in Hereafter, God, and souls. The Quran states in Surah the Heifer verse 117 “To Him is due to the primal origins of the Heavens and earth: when he decrees a matter, He says to it “Be” and it is.” The Quran mentions the words “Amr” and “Khalaq” with regards to creation. The cosmos and the human being are referred to as “Khalaq” while immediate creation and command are referred to as “Amr.” The Islamic religion believes that a human being comes to the universe through a natural and proper system set by God. This means that it is only through sexual intercourse, can a human being be brought on earth. The Islamic Quran also mentions the creation of the universe and human being took six days which is similar to the Christianity religious beliefs. The Quran also gives an account of Adam’s creation.

With most people growing up and being taught about Darwin’s theory in schools, some have started accepting it’s a result, most people today do not value the human being’s body nor life. Those who end up following Darwinism believe that the existence of life on earth was accidental (Page, 2010). As a result, they end up involving themselves in a lot of immoral activities such as drug abuse, immoral sexual acts, and even killings. These immoral activities go again at what the Islamic and other religions religious teachings and talk about one valuing their own body and also not killing other people. As people continue engaging themselves in sin, they use Darwin arguments to support their arguments.

The world has also seen the killing of homosexual activists, feminist and birth control advocates .according to the Quran and Bible, marriage should be sacred, but as a result of Darwinism, marriage has lost its sacred nature for many people do not want to be sexually committed to one individual. Some people have even come to view children as being an inconvenience to their day to day activities. However, according to the story of creation, human beings are supposed to procreate and fill the earth. People have started engaging in sexual acts instead just a means of pleasure. Today’s world has also seen increased rates of abortion, genocide and suicide bombings. This means that people no longer value human life. With Darwinian concepts claiming that human beings occurred by chance, some people will not value and know the importance of human life. Death is also a significant stage according to the religious teachings for one is able to live an eternal life following its occurrence. This means that death should only be natural but not human being initiated.

It is very evident that Darwinism and Creation have different perspectives on how life forms came to be on earth. In today's, world, the human beings have been split between the two whereby each has its own followers and believers. However, the religious believers feel that the Darwinian theory of evolution is one that has no moral stand thus should not be used to explain the existence of human beings and other life forms on earth.

References 

Bene, M. J. (2009). Irreducible complexity: Obstacle to Darwinian evolution. Philosophy of Biology: An Antholog y, 32,427

Browne, J. (2010). Charles Darwin: Voyaging: Volume 1 of Biography . New York: Random House.

Edwards, A. (2011).Mathematizing Darwin. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology , 65(3), 421-430

Kocandrle, R., & Kleisner, K. (2013). Evolution Born of Moisture: Analogies and Parallels between Anaximander’s Ideas of Origin of Life and Man and Pre-Darwinian and Darwinian Evolutionary Concepts. Journal of the History of Biology , 46(1) 103-124

Page S. E. (2010). Diversity and complexity . Princeton, NJ: Princeton university press.

Thompson, W. (2011). Communism . In Ideologies in the Age of Extremes: Liberalism, Conservatism, Communism, Facism , 1914-1991. (pp. 151-168). London: Pluto Books

Walker, J. (2014). “The Long Road”; John Burroughs and Charles Darwin, 1862-1921. In Gianquitto, T. & Fisher. (Eds), American’s Darwin: Darwinian Theory and US Literary Culture (pp. 40-58). Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press.

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