Blog Post 1: Charles Lyell

Maria Hernandez

Anthropology

08/29/213

     Charles Lyell was a Geologist that became most famous after his book “principles of Geology” which explained that the changes in the earth that we see today were caused by geological change long ago. Also, that this change is constantly driven by the consistent forces of nature that one can see today. Emphasizing that little change can be immense over a long period of time. He was named to have changed the time frame in which the earth was viewed, taking earth from a few thousand years old to millions. In addition to this, Lyell was said to be “obsessed with the implications of evolution,” while ranting about evolution he made know to the English speaking world J.B Lamarck (french). Lamarck’s belief in the ability for species to change was just another step for Darwin on his discovery of natural selection rather than Lamarck’s idea of spontaneous change. If Charles Lyell was not so against the idea that man was just a “better beast” then he probably would not have opened the eyes of others to the notions of Lamarck, that intern also influenced Darwin.“ For example, the often heard remark that Lamarck believed that a giraffe's neck was long because each generation stretched its neck to reach higher branches and passed on its stretched neck to its offspring, is a mocking example from Lyell, not from Lamarck himself.”                One of the concepts of evolution is, if the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to that environment will be different. Lyell gave father to the notion of mountains and rivers and so on change consistently over a long span of time. According to Lyell, this change is considered to him to be constant because the “underlying processes” are constant. Therefore, if the environment is constantly changing, animals have no choice to adapt. If there were no adaptation in animals and the environment constantly changes the earth would be deserted of life.

Another key facet of evolution is that individuals do not evolve. Populations do. Evolution does not occur within a generation. It occurs between generations. Lyell is in sense the father of time, inventing the concept of “deep Time”. Because his work allowed for the time needed to erect change. It transfers nicely to the time needed to change populations. It would be less easy to accept evolution if change was immediate.  

 Science and theory itself is hardly ever the work of one sole individual, it takes many to build an idea or to inspire a new way of thinking. Charles Lyell is cited mostly for changing the concept of “deep time,” as the course book calls it. This allowed for a possibility of evolution, giving millions of years of information and ideas to work with.  Without this discovery, evolution would have been too big a pill to swallow. It would have bordered impossible, trying to explain all the different species evolving in only a few thousand years.  Lyell broadened the scope in which one could think more freely and open mindedly about the possibility of evolution.5.The church clearly was opposed to the idea of evolution because that meant that it would alter their way of teaching god and his position of making things as they are, and are meant to be. Put in a better way, natural selection is not natural or divine design. Clearly Darwin was valid in keeping his thoughts of evolution to himself were valid, not publishing anything until he felt his hand forced by Wallace. However, despite the church and the commonly held belief that evolution was form atheism, Darwin released his book and it was well received by the scientific community. This was a saving grace (so to speak) because out casting yourself from the church and the majority of society, one would hope to have made headway with one’s own peers. 

Work cited

http://www.victorianweb.org/science/lyell.html

http://www.victorianweb.org/science/lamarck1.html