nwr writes:
His main evidence was experience with artificial selection, and observation of closely related species (in the sense of the Linneaus systematization) that were adapted to slightly different niches.
Thank you, nwr. I think the evidence he drew from animal husbandry is often overlooked, though not because Darwin doesn't lay it all out. The very fact that we can make changes to our liking in domesticated animals was staggering when exmained in the scientific context of origins.
I have often resented the mischaracterization of Darwin's work. As early as the late 1830s, decades before publishing, he began corresponding with the world animal husbandry--pet breeders, livestock breeders, and animal experts of all sorts.
Rarely has a life's work been so methodically and meticulously researched and thought out. He knew what profound impact his observations and conclusions would have, and he was in no hurry to usher them out of the conseravtory and into the world.
Herepton, it's one thing to disagree with Darwin, it's another to slander one of humankind's most original thinkers for that reason alone. It required an honesty of epic proportions for Darwin not to flinch from his central insights.
This message has been edited by Omnivorous, 09-03-2005 01:19 AM