Darwins Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection - Coursework Example

He realized that organisms reproduce more offspring than is required to replace themselves so the population rapidly grows. Another major influence on Darwin’s observation was drawn from reading Thomas Malthus’s article which stated that the human population was growing at a very rapid pace and resources such as food and water would be scarce (Goldsmith & Bradshaw, 2009). From these facts, he came up with the conclusion that humans compete with each other for scarce resources. He also performed cross-breeding to observe further variation in different plants and animals where he concluded that the individual is inherited from parents to springs (Goldsmith & Bradshaw, 2009). To support his observations and experiments, Darwin collected a wide variety of facts from reports by other naturalists as well as reports from his experiments (Zimmer & Doughlas, 2013).

Charles Darwin was reluctant to publish and make his discovery public until 1858 when a similar theory was discovered by Alfred Russel. Darwin avoided publishing because he was afraid of the reactions of his scientific colleagues. He was also afraid of damaging his reputation, upsetting his religious wife, and religious perception as well as destroying the social order (Zimmer & Doughlas, 2013). Read More