Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection, Social Darwinism and the Catholic Church

A dark dense rainforest, the sound of rain falling on green leaves and the chatter of birds in the canopy surrounds you. On the forest ground two dark shapes circle each other, both let out an ear-piercing roar that silences the entire forest. The dark shapes revealed themselves to be a pair of male gorillas, suddenly they rear up on their back legs and clash together in a fury of swinging arms. The larger gorilla gets a direct blow to the other one as the crunch of bone fills the silent jungle air. The smaller gorilla is knocked to the ground as the larger one rears up and beats his chest in victory. This situation was used as one of the many scenarios for the basis of Charles Darwin’s controversial idea of Survival of the Fittest. During the modern era, a time full of change for the best and the worst, some people would use his ideas of lesser creatures being dominated by those well adapted to survive. This idea of applying survival of the fittest to human society led to the control of lesser races and during the time of Charles Darwin, religious controversy.

The Control of Lower Races

Charles Darwin’s controversial idea of Natural Selection in which only those species successfully adapted to their environment will flourish and survive to pass those favored traits, and those who don’t survive become extinct. In his theory, Darwin shared the idea of all life was not created by a superior being that instead, all life evolved over millions of years. Many people used the idea of the strongest or ‘fittest’ surviving and the weaker ones dying off. People who used the strongest survive idea and applied it to human beings were known as Social Darwinist. These Darwinist believed that in society, as seen in nature, only the stronges...

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...his earth and was how they answered the publics questions because it was written so in the Bible. Darwin’s ideology also went against the belief that the earth was only 10,000 years old and was created in six days in a total of 144 hours. This idea was mainly believed by those who lived their lives with a literal interpretation of the bible.

Many people still argue about Darwin’s theories to this day, they are still as controversial today as they were in the earliest times of the Modern era. The constant arguments of scientific facts and religious faith have led to wars and even acts of hate against certain religious groups. The Crusades and the Jewish Holocaust are both perfect examples of what lengths people are willing to go to for what they believe in. Before the modern era, Religion and the church always had the upper hand in explaining the unexplainable.