2.Thomas Malthus contributed to the scientific community by composing an essay titled "Principle of Population". In it, Malthus described through his observation of nature plants and animals, that they produce way more offspring than can survive. He went further by comparing and arguing that man, too, is able to overproduce if there is no regulation. This will result in misery as human population grows uncontrollably, it will simultaneously see a rise in poverty and famine. Eventually it will reach a point where there will be chaos on earth and mankind will diminish as a result.
source: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html
This also relates to our textbook how Thomas Malthus compared his study of plants and animals to humans.
"Physical Anthropologist, for example, are interested in how humans both differ from and are similar to other animals, especially nonhuman primates" Chapter 1 Page 24, Paragraph 2.
3.The points most directly affected by this individual’s work are:
Resources are limited. Our planet has a limit of much it can hold and produce. There will not be
enough resources available for all organisms to reproduce as many offspring as they can.
This helped Darwin recognize that our natural resources are limited and cannot fulfill the demand of overpopulation.
I also believe that this influenced Darwin to recognize another point
Who gets better access to these limited resources?
As the resources run low, the level of competition increase among population. Those who are better adapted to their environment would have greater reproductive success because their traits allowed to be more competitive and get the essential resources for reproduction purposes.
4. I dont think Darwin could have developed his theory of natural selection without the influence of Thomas Malthus' Principle of Population. It was merely this masterpiece that helped Darwin recognize that challenges of over-production. Nevertheless, Darwin built upon this very theory to undermine Malthus by further explaining that over-production actually increases competition among siblings, and that some variation among siblings would produce some people with slightly higher chance of survival.
5. Charles Darwin maintained a continuous relationship with the church throughout his lifetime. At one point in time he had plans to become a clergyman in the Church of England, but later abandoned that goal. At the time there was intense conflict over religious morality in England. The Evangelicalism led to surge in professionalism of clerics who were seriously focused on expanded religious obligations. They too stressed that the Bible should be read literally and that religious doubt was in itself sinful so should not be discussed.
For Darwin this was an opportunity to counter church's strict close mindness. For example, as the scientific community was providing more research material supporting evolution, the church at first condemned the publications, later countered it by saying its "God's tool".
For Darwin, this was time to advocate his work with the goal of winning the church's support. His approach was not blasphemous, but rather advocacy to explain evolution through logic and explanation, not denial of God's role (higher power) which is mentioned in his publication.
