Charles Darwin v. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

 Although Charles Darwin is most famous for his theory of Natural Selection and is often given the most credit for modern evolutionary theory, there were hundreds of other scholars and scientist that also developed their own theories and somehow   help the set the path towards the discovery and understanding of evolution.   One of those many scientists was Jean –Baptiste de Lamarck, a biologist with an idea of evolution that had a negative influence on Darwin’s own theory of evolutionary design. Lamarck believed that traits that were acquired throughout an organism’s lifetime were in fact passed on from generation to generation, which is known as principle of acquired characteristics and is also known as being false.  Although both scientists had similar understandings of how evolution occurred and were both essentially searching for an explanation to the consistency of evolution, their final theories were quite different.  

According to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/02/3/l_023_01.html  Lamarck claimed that the way organisms evolved was that certain characteristics that they used often, improved within time according to how much they used it, while characteristics or parts of their bodies that they didn’t use disappeared over time within generations. He claimed that characteristics that were acquired were passed on from generation to generation and he believed that certain organism didn’t become exciting but that they transformed in to something better. Although Lamarck’s theory was proven to be incorrect, he till set the platform for the theory of evolution and the concept that “the environment plays a role in the shaping the species that live in it.”

Although Lamarck’s final theory was incorrect, he did make various valid points. Both Darwin and Lamarck agreed that if the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to that environment will be different. They disagreed on the fact that in order for natural selection to occur, reproduction must occur. Darwin claimed that in order to evolve you must pass on your traits; Lamarck argued that you acquired traits over time and you pass those developed characteristics that were “perfected” over one generation to another. Darwin‘s theory differed, stating that in order or traits to really evolve and changed the must be heritable and not acquired, because individuals cannot control the characteristics or traits that they inherit.

Lamarck, however, still played an important role in the view of evolution. He proposed that there is ongoing change in the world that affects the way organisms survived, he introduced the idea that there is a system in which the environment changes and by doing that it forces organism to change as well. Darwin might have gotten it right but he could have not done it without Lamarck’s opposing views of natural selection.

Darwin’s publication of On the Origin of Species sparked a lot of controversy with the Church. The Church obviously had a problem with the idea of Darwin exposing a scientific truth of how humans had been evolving over time. The church felt threatened and was outraged that Darwin could print a text in which it contradicted the belief system that the church had present to its followers.