It's one of the greatest stories in science: how an inquisitive 22 year-old sails around the world, encounters creatures never before seen and makes an extraordinary discovery that changes his world.
And yet, Charles Darwin never wanted the fame, the controversy nor the ructions the ideas triggered. But once he realised the importance of his discovery of natural selection as the mechanism of evolution, he knew his responsibility as a scientist: to document and divulge his 'dangerous idea', whatever the consequences.
It's an enthralling story. As a teenager, I could not help but be excited to read of his exploits. It was like reading Jules Verne or H.G. Wells, and yet this really happened: a shy, awkward young man, unsure what he wants to do with his life, faces trials and tribulations, finds his manhood and returns to be recognised and celebrated by his peers.
That's where he could have left it. But slowly, as he documented his five-year voyage, perused and catalogued his vast collection of samples, he began to realise that a powerful natural force pervaded all life.
Evolution is a deceptively simple idea, not immediately obvious to the casual observer. But its effects are complex, and span millions of years. If geology can be summed up as pressure plus time, then evolution is basically genetics and environment plus time.
Did he doubt what he saw? Surely the method by which one species morphs into another cannot be so simple? But the more he studied the concept in species after species, the more he saw the effect.
It was like suddenly recognising a language you had always heard in the background but could never understand: it was the language of life itself, whispering its secrets to anyone who took the trouble to listen carefully.
Darwin was also a man of faith: he attended a Church of England school, studied theology at Cambridge and had planned to be a clergyman. The implications of his discovery on religion troubled him. People of Darwin's time were discovering that all was not as they had been taught, that the ancients had, in many cases, been mistaken by erroneous presuppositions or a lack of data.
So it was an exciting time, but also a disturbing one. Darwin's ideas challenged the old shibboleths in Victorian England. And yet, they were based on evidence. And, as a man of science, he could not ignore the evidence.
As Carl Zimmer writes in his excellent book, Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea:
"Evolution connects us to the dawn of Earth, to showers of comets and death-winds of stars. It produced the crops we eat and now helps insects destroy them. It illuminates the mysteries of medicine, such as how mindless bacteria can outwit the best minds in science…it reveals how our minds were assembled among lonely bands of apes. We may still struggle with what evolution says about our place in the universe, but that universe is all the more remarkable."
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, a thoroughly researched and meticulously argued book that sent shock waves across the world. He did not publish it on a whim: he mulled over the ideas for 23 years, and only really started writing a decade before publishing it.
While it did not address the issue directly, the clear implication of evolution is that a God is not needed to create each individual animal; that they can arise naturally and blindly. For Darwin, this implication caused him consternation, earned him enemies and triggered a firestorm of public and private controversy.
"That would make a great film," a young university student told me, as I recounted Darwin's extraordinary life. Indeed it would, and it has been tried, usually as a documentary. But it has all the trappings of a Hollywood blockbuster: all we need is someone to make it.
Read more about Darwin in our Special Report: Darwin at 200
Wilson da Silva is the Editor of Cosmos.
The Nature of The Universe and Life
The God Theory
Introduction
Initially, there are common misconceptions that the theory of God and that of the Big Bang are mutually exclusive. This is not necessarily the case. This theory goes some way in proposing the existence of both.
One of the most peculiar omissions from any scientific theory is on how the mind developed. The mind is not something made of matter or energy, or otherwise we could produce it at will. No matter how much we develop artificial intelligence it would never measure up to the complexity of the mind. Its obvious that the imaginary creatures we see in the subconscious, that we imagine and dream, do not exist here, but they must exist somewhere. The mind is somewhat of an eyeglass into other worlds. It cannot be defined by mere physics.
But then where does it come from? We may never be able to determine this, but we can make presumptions that can be fairly accurate, like those below.
The Existence of God or Intelligent Design
The existence of intelligent design, whilst justified by minimal evidence, is supported by the mathematics of limiting factors. Let me at first explain the theory of limiting factors concisely.
As one changes from a regular triangle to a square through to a regular pentagon, it is evident that each time a side is added, the new polygon is closer in shape to a circle. The circle is therefore known as the limiting factor of the polygonal sequence because no matter how many sides the polygon has it will get closer but never fully become a circle. A circle has infinite sides therefore, bot one at the same time. It has infinite sides, but can still logically exist as a singular object limited by one side.
The universe can be represented by the relationship between space and time and a relationship always has to have some sort of limiting factor. The limiting factor therefore must be one entity, a being from which the whole Universe is contained and limited by. This must be God. He is of infinite proportions, but still just one.
Other ‘scientists’ say that everything came from matter and anti-matter, but these, although vast in number, are still finite and therefore cannot be limiting factors of the universe because the finite can be exceeded and therefore preceded by another factor which is thus not limited and hence a contradiction occurs. Furthermore there cannot be two limiting factors e.g. both. Anti-matter and matter since one would not limit the other therefore and hence a contradiction occurs again.
The Nature of the Universe
The existence of dark matter and dark energy is a fact. This theory is based on the assumption that since light energy, dark energy and dark matter are fundamental aspects of the Universe, that it logically follows that there is such thing as light matter.
Dark matter functions somewhat as if it was the scaffolding of the universe, wherever it conglomerates there are planets and stars. What also must be noticed is that wherever dark matter is, such as the afore-mentioned stars and planets, there is a concentration of light energy. This definitely cannot be coincidental.
It can be presumed that light energy bends towards dark matter. If this is the case, there is a probable likelihood that dark energy bends towards light matter.
Dark energy is currently accelerating outwards towards the rim of the Universe. Many scientists believe that the Universe is expanding. This is not necessarily the case. There seems to be a blatant ignorance of the possibility that the Universe itself is not expanding outwards, but everything within it is.
An analogy for this is to dip an Oreo into a mug of milk. The specks of Oreo inside float towards the rim of the mug and if one could minimise oneself and stand inside the milk, there would be a perception that the whole universe was expanding. In fact, everything inside the mug (the specks stands for galaxies) are actually accelerating outwards inside the medium of milk (in the example this is space) and then clashing with the rim of the mug (the rim of the Universe.)
If Dark energy is heading towards the rim of the Universe (which is already scientifically proven), it follows that the rim of the Universe must be the location of the light matter which dark energy bends towards.
The Composition of Light Matter
Light matter is around the rim of the Universe and therefore functions as the skin which holds the Universe inside it. Since it must withstand the force of the dark energy within, it must be extremely malleable, elastic, strong and dense to the extent that it is impervious to all universal forces. It cannot be gaseous for it must maintain a set position and therefore it cannot be a liquid either. Perhaps then it is a solid? Yet how does it withstand the heat of all the accelerating matter within the Universe colliding against it? How does become so malleable and how can it move so freely in adjusting itself to the forces hitting it? Furthermore, how does it preserve its shape? These baffling questions lead us to a startling answer that light matter takes the characteristics of all states of matter.
The Beginning of the Universe
Since light matter contains the entire Universe, it must have been there first. It follows that before the Universe was created per se, there must merely been a mass of light matter at the start. This light matter did not live in the medium of space which did not exist at the time, but rather in a void governed simply by time and space.
Now somehow, at an indiscriminate time, this mass of light matter began to develop a Mind. This is the concept of God and is linked with the Islamic interpretation that God (or Allah) is the ‘ocean of light’.
The Mind was initially entirely positive. It contained goodwill, kindness and happiness. To release these emotions, the Mind expanded the light matter rapidly in a Big Bang to create the Universe. Because of this enormous force, dark energy, dark matter and light energy were created as well as the rudimentary components of the early Universe. With something to stimulate its emotions the Mind could now release its full prowess.
During the expansion of the Universe, some traces of the Mind were sparsely spread throughout the Universe and these traces took refuge on several elements and substances. These substances developed into living organisms and their initial mental capacity was determined by how much trace of the Mind they had. Eventually, they bred and the conscience and ability to think were passed on through the generations because the traces of the Mind were hereditary.
The Concept of the Devil
Now as the Mind developed and saw the creatures it created, it developed more complex emotions. To communicate with the beings in the Universe it sent offshoots of the light matter into the Universe to communicate with life (for the offshoots were part of the light matter and hence were directly linked with the mind and its emotions). These offshoots are now more commonly known as Angels.
Some of the complex emotions developed negatively into anger, sadness and greed amongst others. The Mind wished to rid itself of these emotions and therefore released an offshoot of light matter containing these emotions. This offshoot was in essence an Angel with negative emotions and hence became a Devil. This is linked with the Biblical story that Lucifer was once an Angel but then became the Devil afterwards.
The Whereabouts of Heaven and Hell
It can therefore be assumed that the fiery Rim of the Universe where dark energy, dark matter, light energy and light matter collide is Hell. First and foremost, it is palpably fiery and has enormous heat (because all galaxies and forces are meeting on the rim as they accelerate towards the light matter. This would mean it would be the perfect place to banish the root of the Negative Mind (the Devil) after he spread negativity throughout the Universe. In addition, excessive negativity in certain organisms means that ‘evil’ beings that possess more negative emotions such as excessive anger and greed are drawn to their roots in the negative Mind which dwells in Hell. There, their bodies will be obliterated, but their negative emotions which are not made of any matter would therefore be indestructible and would still exist, thus suffering ‘eternal torment’ as they are consumed in their own negativity.
Heaven however, is the dwelling of the positive part of the greater Mind that dwells in the light matter. This mind is what we perceive as God. As it is in power of the light matter in which it exists, it can mould this light matter into any desirable shape for the positive beings (those who have mainly positive emotions such as happiness, tranquillity and mercy) that are attracted to the root of positivity, which is the Mind (God). It would therefore reflect all the qualities of positivity and would therefore be utopian and since as aforementioned, the individual mind and emotions of a being cannot be destroyed, those in ‘Heaven’ would live in ‘eternal bliss’.
Some Interesting Facts
• Many religions claim that God is everywhere. The theory above supports this because the Light Matter encompasses the Universe and is therefore ‘all around’ us.
• Secondly, it is claimed that God is inside all of us. The above theory states that since everyone has a part of the original Mind of the Light Matter that a part of God (the Light Matter with the Mind) is actually inside every living thing?
• Also ‘good’ people have more positive emotions and would hence go to The Light matter because of the positivity attracting them. The contrary applies for those with negative emotions.
• Light matter is also a limiting factor because it began the Universe and contains the Universe with nothing exceeding or going beyond it. In addition, light matter is continuously regenerated by the Mind to cater with the inner pressure of the contents of the Universe expanding and is hence also of infinite proportions.
• Finally, Islam states that our deeds will not impact on the powers of God anyway. Since God is Light Matter, matter could not be destroyed completely and the Mind which has no actual physical form, is also indestructible, meaning God (again, do not forget this is the conscious Light Matter) is in essence immortal.