Oh. I always thought the theory of evolution was thought up BEFORE Darwin and that Darwin was only the guy trying to explain how it happened. (Using natural selection) In fact I'm sure I read somewhere that evolution was around before Darwin, and that his father even wrote poems about it.
You have the occurrence of evolution mixed up with the explanatory model (the theory). For a long time before Darwin it had been obvious that life on Earth had changed forms over time (and that it was a pretty long time as well.) Naturalists could see from the very limited number of fossils found already that current life had not always been on the planet. They could also see that there had been a succession of different sets of critters on Earth.
But how could this be? That was the question that needed answering. How could one set of critters inhabiting the Earth be replaced by a new set? Either there were a whole new set created over again (which was a hypothesis put forward) or the existing ones had to change into the new ones. The new creations hypothesis got a little weak seeming as it became apparent that there would have to be 10's then 100's and then even more recreations of life. But experience showed that one animal doesn't suddenly turn into another so how could it have happened? Because it was clear that it had happened; life
hadchanged and changed a lot. It was too clear to ignore even 200 years ago.
There were then hypotheses put forward for how this could happen. Darwin's was the one that answered the question, stood up to scrutiny and testing over time and is now the accepted one. The explanation for how something occurs is what a theory is.
ABE
Oops did it again: Wallace and Darwin independently came up with the theory of change through imperfect replication and selection. Poor Wallace -- a day late and a dollar short.
Edited by NosyNed, : added a bit
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