Darwin's Words on Evolution
From "Descent of Man," Chapter XXI, General Summary and Conclusion, pp. 590-

Home Page

"The main conclusion is that man is descended from some less highly organized form. The grounds upon which this conclusion rests will never be shaken, for the close similarity between man and the lower animals in embryonic development as well as in innumerable points of structure and constitution. . . . are facts which cannot be disputed."

"One is forced to admit that the close resemblance of the embryo of man to that, for instance, of a dog – the construction of his skull, limbs and whole frame on the plane with that of other mammals point in the plain manner to the conclusion that man is the co-descendant with other mammals of a common progenitor." (direct ancestor)

"We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal (tree living) in its habits, . . .it would have been classed amongst the Quadrumana, (walked on all fours), as surely as the ancient monkeys. The Quadrumana probably derived from an ancient marsupial animal, (young nourished in the pouch of the mother as a Kangaroo). This in turn, from a long series of forms, from some amphibian-like creature, and this from some fish-like animal. The early progenitor of all the Vertebrata must have been an aquatic animal with the two sexes united in the same individual with the most important organs such as the brain and heart imperfectly or not at all developed. This animal seems to have been more like the larvae of the existing marine ascidians (jelly fish), than any other known form."

"One can no longer believe that man is the work of a separate act of creation."

Top
Home Page