Darwin's Evolution Theory

Question

Why can the theory be considered an important part of the sweeping economic, social, and cultural changes of the 19th century?

Answer 1

Rather than the Galapagos Islands, if Darwin had sailed to Australia, and discovered some of the creatures native to there, such as the Platypus, evolution would have been taught manditorily, worldwide, 150 years ago, and there would be virtually no religious fundamentalists today...

For example, the Platypus has a duck's bill, webbed feet, and lay's eggs like a bird. It has mammalian-like fur, nipples, and breastfeeds its young, like we do, and finally, males have a reptillian-like spur, which can inject poisonous venom while defending itself against enemies, like a snake...

If that isn't a "missing link", I don't know what is!

Answer 2

Because it informed many of the ideals of the age. There was a movement known as Social Dawanism that tried to equate social status with being better fit. Of course, this idea ignored social  conditions and proved false. You also need to look at how it changed scientific theories and many people's religous beliefs.  

Answer 3

I'm not sure that the full effects of Darwin were felt in the 19th century, even though _The Origin of the Species_ appeared in 1859. Evolution was another decentering of church power, although it did not percolate into common thought rapidly; there was too much resistance. Roger Shattuck in _From Prometheus to Pornography_ quotes an upper class woman as saying "Let us hope that the lower orders never find out about it!" She saw its social threat; the hierarchy of England was not part of a divinely ordered universe where moral authority dervied from God and passed through the state.

Even today some public schools in America resist it.

The theory contributed to the physiological explanation for life--no transcendent purpose or force was in evidence, only what "worked." In this sense, the social determinism that Marx believed in had an analogue in biology.

Answer 4

I dont think humans did evolve at all, darwin was wrong. Humans deevolved from monkeys who were superior beings.

Answer 5

because God created the world long long long time ago way before darwin was born and God is more important than some body who said we came from birds monkeys and turtles out of the ocean or something  

Answer 6

It had a profound effect on peoples understanding of where they fit in the universe.  It likely affected many people by making them doubt the church.  Some people, even today, ignore the proof of the theory and pretend they are the center of the universe.

Answer 7

It can't, and wasn't.  Although the theory revolutionized the study of biology (and is now a proven fact), it had little impact outside of biology.  There was something called "social Darwinism", in which people tried to apply evolutionary ideas to some social issues, but its effect on these was limited.  For more on this, see: