Darwin's family background in religion

Charles Darwin was baptized on November 17, 1809  at St. Chand's Church in Shrewbury, England. His mother took him to Unitarian church until he was eight years of age. Unitarianism is a theology, which holds that God is only one person as appose to Trinity that views God as father, son, and holy spirit in one Godhead. Darwin's mother died when he was eight years old, but he continued to attend church regularly with his sister. One of his grandfathers, Erasmus Darwin, as well as his father were freethinkers. A freethinker has a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be based on science, logic, and reason as appose to authority, tradition, and dogma. Although, Darwin's father was a freethinker, but as a physician he avoided any social conflict with his Anglicans patrons. The extended family of Darwins and Wedgwoods was supported by the Whigs who were Unitarians. Whigs were a party in British parliment who contested with Tories. By looking at Darwin's family background, it can be assumed that the family were not as conservative as others at his time.

The new atlantis

Francis Bacon values science on his "The New Atlantis" and argues that the more knowledge human gains by using science, the more it brings relief to human estate. As a matter of fact, he believes that gaining knowledge and science is a form of power. I agree with Bacon's argument as by the help of science human makes progress in life and are able to reach new technology. Moreover, he believes that nature is a mean for acquiring more knowledge as oppose to Pope who values nature and believes that nature does not have to be destroyed. In my opinion, human destroys nature to explore and invent new things. In return, human life can be destroyed by natural phenomena such as earthquake, hurricane, and flood.

New Atlanits

Francis Bacon believes that understanding of nature causes human to take care of nature rather than conquering it.

On the Origin of Species

In my opinion Darwin's sexual selection does not hold for all females. I think in this era sexual selection theory is controversial, especially among feminists. Darwin believes that in every species males are stronger than females, but it cannot be true about human. As we see in our society, there are lots of strong and independent women who manage their life so much better than men. In addition, I disagree with Darwin's idea in struggle for life that the strongest species will survive and the weakest will die. As we discussed in class, if we want to use Darwin's idea in today's economy, although small retailers cannot compete with the big ones, but it is possible that small companies grow. Darwin's ideas were new in his own era, but it needs to be modified to be used in twenty-first century.