A.J.+Week+5

There are many times in history in which people could say we became inhuman. I mean if we were to take someone from the Middle Ages and show them airplanes and jets, they’d probably die of heart attack. Things in the future that can’t be comprehended by a past human become inhuman or magical. The same thing happens when a new discovery is made and presented to the public. Darwin’s theory did just this when he published it. With most of the public believing we originated from the hand of god, they did not accept his new idea. Everyone had an opinion they wanted to share, most berated his __On the Origin of Species.__

Now Darwin’s original ideas we based on observation of plants and animals. He realized that more animals were born than could survive. “They constantly struggled against one another for food or room to grow, he thought. That meant any plant or animal with a competitive edge—drought tolerance, a thicker-than-average coat—could live longer and leave more offspring than its fellows. The presence of such adaptations controlled, in effect, which individuals would represent the species in the next generation. Now Darwin could see how variation could make a difference: individuals with useful traits would, on average, survive to reproduce and pass along those traits. ” (Niles Eldredge) This started off his ideas leading to the evolution of humans. Now he knew that the idea of evolution would be extremely controversial and thus didn’t publish his discoveries for twenty years after his original discoveries. I think this was a smart decision. He needed to make sure he had concrete proof before he discarded a couple thousand years of teachings. Others may have liked to have his idea out in public earlier, but I believe it would have been shot down had he published too early. After his discoveries of the evolution of plants and animals, he branched off into that of the human field. He went to the London Zoo and saw his first ape. Almost immediately he realized the similarities between her and humans. “ When Jenny was angry at her keeper, he wrote, the animal "threw itself down on its back & kicked & cried like a naughty child.—Do monkeys cry?-they whine like children.” (Niles Eldredge) Now this was a true breakthrough. To link humans to another animal was unheard of and absurd. The idea that we evolved from something as nasty and inhuman as an ape hurt our pride as a community. It took us convincing for many years that we could be related to such a beast. Once it was accepted though many things would come together and many more conflicts would erupt. How should the church react to such an idea? This has played out for the last century and a half, but now more people are on the side of evolution than there were in the past. Just goes to show how inhuman we are. I mean were related to monkeys.