Blog 6

                The sections of The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, which included “Religious beliefs” to the end of the book, portrayed Darwin’s final conclusions about his beliefs of God, his efforts of putting all his strength in his research, and how his life was about his research, especially since he had no strength left for anything else. He talked about how it became his life goal to further science and to be able to contribute even just a little to science. He valued the satisfaction of just being able to do research and spread the knowledge of his discoveries to others; he never intended to become famous and to change to way all of biology is viewed. What I found fascinating though is that he not only kept these values even after he became well renowned, but also that he continued to view himself as average. It is often figured that scientists become prideful when their discoveries break new ground and act as if they are one of the most significant scientists of their time. Darwin, however, thought himself as no better than anyone else and often told of how there were many other scientists more intelligent than him. This does not mean that he did not stand by his research when others tried to refute it. He constantly gave qualification for the success of The Origins and how it gave sound reasoning. Yet even when justifying his work, he would often refer to himself as one with simple judgement and reasoning that was no better than anyone else’s, and that he had moderate abilities for research. Whenever he discussed how he was able to show other scientists his points about evolution and was able to convince some of evolution’s relevance, he always sounded surprised that he was able to do this. If scientists today could view themselves as no better than any other scientist, like Darwin did, I believe that science would be able to progress forward more smoothly since things such as patent wars, scientists holding their discoveries secret from others, and battles for prestigious titles would be absent.

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