Here are a few key facts that I was unaware of about Charles Darwin:
1. I did not realize that Darwin's theory of natural selection was twenty years in the making. I suppose that the slower it goes, the more his theory supports his own words. After all, it takes time for evolution to take place.
2. Darwin himself was not always a secular scientist. When he first began to receive his education, wanted to be a physician, and then later changed 'majors' to study divinity. Many of the people of his day still held to the belief that the world in which they lived was created by God in seven days. Of course, this is why his book created so much controversy when published - instead of being created by God, man is just another form of an evolved animal.
3. Alfred Russel Wallace, with Charles Darwin, presented their similar theories on evolution together in 1858. In 1859, Darwin published On the Origins of Species by Means of Natural Selection. (It sold out on the first day!)
4. Darwin did not enjoy controversy. He enjoyed nature and his microscopes.
5. Darwin loved buying the instruments needed for his position as a naturalist on the Beagle. Even then, he would still not think of traveling without a Bible because he still planned on being a clergyman when he returned. He became a naturalist instead.
For more information:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/
http://anthro.palomar.edu/evolve/evolve_2.htm
