Natural Selection
Natural Selection is the process that results in the survival of those individuals or groups that are best adjusted to their environment, or to use a more contemporary term, "survival of the fittest".Learn more about this important scientific concept in a custom research paper from Paper Masters. Have our writers tailor your paper to exactly what you need.
Some excellent topic suggestions on natural selection include the following:
- Trace the evolution of Darwin's finches and describe how he discovered their differences.
- Choose one species and trace their evolution.
- Compare and contrast natural selection and previous notions of animal changes.
Charles Darwin presents the idea of natural selection as the reason for man's "organic" success or in Darwin's words, his rise to the position of, "the most dominant animal that has ever appeared on this earth". According to research papers on Darwin's Natural Selection, man has become the clearly dominant species on the planet due to a number of different variables. Man is dominant partly because he has been able to adapt and thrive in more varied places on earth and under the most diversified conditions, and therefore has succeeded in spreading the human race all over the globe. Darwin then goes on to say that man, "manifestly owes this immense superiority to his intellectual faculties, to his social habits...and to his corporeal structure", man's "corporeal structure" being his physical make-up. Darwin describes the importance of these characteristics by saying; "The supreme importance of these characters has been proved by the final arbitrament of the battle for life".
That is to say, when man's position of superiority has been challenged, it has been those traits that have separated him from his competition time and time again. In that theory, a concept such as "free will", as a subdivision of both "intellect" and "social habit", would indeed be included in the equation. "Strength" as well, plays a significant role in man's advancement, falling into the "corporeal structure" category. Indeed, for our distant ancestors, or as Darwin refers to them, "the progenitors of man", strength was a very important factor in the process of natural selection, as we have often heard the remark, "only the strong survive". However, nowhere in his writing does Darwin contribute any of man's success to the concept of "divine intervention", or for that matter, the concept of God. In fact, Darwin is quick to point out that, "There is no evidence that man was aboriginally endowed with the ennobling belief in the existence of an Omnipotent God", and adds that, "On the contrary there is ample evidencethat numerous races have existed, and still exist, who have no idea of one or more gods, and who have no words in their languages to express such an idea".