Charles Darwin

            
             Charles Darwin (1809-1882) had many intentions before becoming a scientist. He first wanted to follow the path of his father and become a physician but he found it distasteful. At age sixteen, Darwin left Shrewsbury to study medicine at Edinburgh University. Repelled by the sight of surgery performed without anesthesia, he eventually went to Cambridge University to prepare to become a clergyman in the Church of England. Once he arrived at Cambridge he quickly developed his lifelong interest in the natural sciences. There he came into contact with some of the best naturalists of his day. After receiving his degree, Darwin accepted an invitation to serve as an unpaid naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle, which departed on a five-year scientific expedition to the Pacific coast of South America on December 31st, 1831. Darwin's research resulting from this voyage formed the basis of his famous book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Published in 1859, the work aroused a storm of controversy. Here Darwin outlined his theory of evolution, challenging the contemporary beliefs about the creation of life on earth. .
             Social Darwinism:.
             The term Darwinism has numerous meanings. It is a number of major theories that formed of Charles Darwin's evolutionary thinking. Darwinism a scientific theory to life's beginnings has caused conflict with the Catholic Church and what it teaches. The Church taught that all human life was created by God; Darwinism contradicts this with the theory of evolution. One of the ideas that came from Darwinism is "survival of the fittest." Protestant Europeans believed that they had evolved much further and faster than other "races." Some wealthy industrialists believed that the Caucasian was at the apex of evolution. Social Darwinism came to serve as a scientific justification for racism. German politicians and scholars first used Social Darwinism around the turn of the century to justify Germany's increasingly aggressive militarism.