Research Paper on:
Morality and Charles Darwin's Theories

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
to the individual interpretation of what morality is and is not. Charles Darwin (1809-1892) and his studies which established the foundation of modern evolutionary theory had a profound influence on  science as well as the thinking of humanity regarding its origins. However, theories of evolution are not necessarily directly associated with "theories" of morality. In fact, certain religious traditions will  point to the fact that because human beings understand that morality and immorality are part of human nature that it cannot be possible that Darwins theories were correct. After all,  if human beings simply developed over time as an extension of other creatures of the Earth, how could it be possible that they would have a sense of right and  wrong? Evolution and Morality Darwin presented the idea that evolution by natural selection was, in many ways, a simple matter of eat or be eaten. Again, religious scholars of  the 19th and 20th centuries argued that if such was the case, humanity would be incapable of doing good for others when it did nothing to serve their own ends.  Once again, issues of morality were seen to be at odds with issues of evolution. Furthermore, Darwins theory of natural selection in which the young born to any species compete  for survival is only part of his much larger concept regarding how human beings have developed as a species. For example, he also introduced the idea that all organisms  that are related in some way are descended from their common ancestors, as well as presenting the idea that the earth itself is not unmoving but is in a constant  state of evolution. Bowler (1990) also explains that Darwin believed that even though evolution was somehow a progressive process, he was still deeply skeptical about the idea and meaning of