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Sep 14, 2007

Pam rated it:

such a freakin' genius! and the sadest part is, that his "science" literally killed him. if you've read a lot in Darwin (as I have) you come to understand that as a religious man, his studies seriously conflicted with his beliefs. I hate it when I hear someone say that Darwin says, "we come from monkeys." because that is not the case.

his theory is on EVOLUTION, not monkeys. all he wanted people to understand was adaptation and survival of the fittest is reall More...

21 comments like (23 people liked it)

Oct 27, 2007

Jessica rated it:

Are you an Evangelical Christian? Or, perhaps you are a student participating in one of nation's modern and progressive science classes, learning about the Origins of Man, but confused by the lack of scientifically observable studies missing from your text books. Fortunately for you, Darwin spent decades of his life documenting the observable changes in various species, hypothesizing about these changes and drawing some interesting conclusions about his life's work.

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Anouk rated it:

Darwin's The Origin of Species is the best eye-opener for people who want to understand the theory of evolution. With the current paradigm of creationism and its argument against evolution, it is the best book to refer too. Darwin's theory is very strong and realistic and can be easily related to today's universe.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 20, 2010

Joe rated it:

Having finished Origin, I am taking the liberty of adding a few comments at the top of what I posted when I first added it to my "currently-reading shelf."

To the would-be classics reader who is a bit daunted at the notion of tackling a fourteen chapter science book written in 19th Century technical terms I offer the suggestion that the back half of Origin is purely optional and can be let go. The first six chapters are the most enjoyable. Four is the big one, where Dar More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2008

Ruth rated it:

With my brand new shiny degree in geology/paleontology, this was the first book I read after commencement. I give it 5 stars for the importance of its text, not for its readability.

12 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Jeremy added it

While this is obviously a hugely important piece of work that had major implications for evolutionary theory, ecology, and eventually genetics, it's one of the most dully written things I've come across. When he talks about the theory itself it's fine, but he spends so much time explaining things like pigeon coloring, and plant stamens, that I found myself throwing it down from sheer boredom. I was surprised by how tame the text was considering the firestorm of bullshit that asshole creationists More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 02, 2011

Cora rated it:

Richard Dawkins' narration of this book is excellent -- I enjoyed it immensely, however, without my semester of physical anthropology, the essential points would have required much more mental attention.

Dawkins inserts clarifying information throughout the book and while Darwin's writing is wonderfully clear, I think more of Dawkins' notes and updates would have been an enhancement.

I was surprised to see how diverse Darwin's background research was and how elegantly he wrot More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 24, 2009

Kendall rated it:

Finally re-read after decades of good intentions. For a recondite classic it is full of surprises, mostly pleasant; its supposed impenetrability largely confined to parts we already knew were directed at specialists—I admit to slogging through the section on barnacles, for example. But Origins is highly readable, pleasurable even, almost in the way of an Edmund Wilson essay. Darwin proceeds deliberately through the mountain of evidence he collected over twenty years as he constructs a virtua More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 23, 2008

Barry added it

It seems that every discussion of the evolution of evolution starts with that poor wrong-headed Lamarck and his idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. What a dummy! He thought Giraffe's necks got longer because each generation kept straining to reach ever higher leaves. Well, Darwin thought the same thing. In a section called Use and Disuse he says, "I think there can be little doubt that use in our domestic animals strengthens and enlarges certain parts, and disuse diminishes More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 24, 2007

Kyle rated it:

Very convincing argument, hardly long at all, related in a calm voice that inspires interest in what must have consumed Darwin for over a decade - with all the experiments he writes about one can imagine him in his backyard, examining bird droppings, or in his lab, testing how long an apple would float in salt water. How he need to write how much he trusts others informing him, even his own son at one point. For all of his calm, rational explanation, there is still enough digs at contrary natu More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 18, 2007

Ben rated it:

I can't imagine anything less necessary than writing a capsule review of the Origin of Species, but... it's a really great read. Darwin was unusually reflexive and tempered in his writing, probably owing at least in part to the heavy disapproval he know he would encounter from everyone from the clergy to other scientists, but props to him for writing in a way that is at once confident and humble. Reading this after Feyerabend's Against Method, the major thing I took away from it was that s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 24, 2010

Mike rated it:

I listened to an abridged audio version of this book and it was enough for me to get the point. This isn't the devil book that many people want it to be. Darwin doesn't spend much time on the theological implications of his theory. He is on a mission to present evidence of his theory.

What I wasn't expecting was how often he talked about the alternate theory of "creation," which has little to do with the biblical passages in Genesis and everything to do with the idea of spontaneous gen More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 02, 2008

Alan rated it:

Charles Darwin, the revolutionary scientific theorists that introduced the theory of evolution to the world. His findings are praised by the scientific society and despised by religious establishments. Origins of Species is a amalgamation of Darwin's comprehensive analysis's on various physical characteristics of animals that corroborate the theory of evolution. He gives thorough explanations on the difference between evolution of domesticated animals and wild animals, in addition to countles More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 08, 2008

Heather rated it:

Oos is the book that popularized the theory of materialistic origins, evolutionary theory. I think it is important for people to read. It's a good book, as long as you keep in mind that it was written in 1860, and has all the pomp and fluff of verbose 1860 English writing. The arguments themselves are fascinating. Creationist and materialist alike can gain some insight into the whole debate by reading this book. What I found most fascinating in the whole thing was just how much Darwin's underst More...

1 comment like

May 12, 2011

Michael G. rated it:

I swear I cannot figure what all the fuss is about. This is a science book. It was sometimes a bit tough to read because of the depth into detail. If I were an anthropologist I'm sure I would more appreciate that detail, but as a layman it did at times seem too thick.

If I were lost in an uncivilized world and had only two books, I would want a Webster's dictionary and this Origin of Species. The dictionary to learn word definitions and this book to learn about the flora and fau More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2011

Siri added it

It is almost touching to read this book, holding such an important historical document in your hands – a book that has had such a profound impact on how we as humans would come to see our place in the world. It is important to note that Charles Darwin was far from the first that had begun to doubt the claims by the Church: that Earth was only a few thousand years old, and that everything had been created in the current state observed. Indeed, the reason why Darwin finally decided to publish On t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 06, 2011

Graham added it

It's taken me a while to finish this book, which I've been meaning to read forever. The reason is not that it's a difficult book to read; it isn't. Darwin explained his ideas in extraordinarily easy to understand language, which you may find surprising for what is, after all, basically a scientific document.

No, the reason that it took a while to finish is that I read it as an eBook, downloaded from Project Gutenberg, and read with eReader Pro on my Nokia 5230. Consequently I only carried on r More...

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Mar 13, 2011

Peter added it

Buy this book and decide for your self!!: The Origin of Species is a great read and of interest to anyone who would like to make there own mind up about Darwinism rather than take for granted some ones else's opinion. Darwin makes this book very readable to the masses I my self am not I Biology student but managed to understand the book with relative ease and Darwin helps this along by using everyday language. This book is also of particular interest to any one who is interested in ideas and phi More...

0 comments like

Jan 29, 2012

Sandra rated it:

I've been promising myself for years that I would read Darwin's original treatise, and finally got around to it as it is now available as a free Kindle book. Finished it just in time for Darwin's upcoming birthday on Feb 12th. I did not find it an easy read because of the archaic language and the redundancies of content, but I am very glad I did read it because I now can more fully appreciate how difficult it must have been for Darwin to formulate this theory in all its complexity given the sta More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 23, 2011

Vivian rated it:

So wonderful to read, in ways I can't even explain but that have to do with confronting what Darwin actually says after years of being exposed only to hearsay through the cultural ubiquity of his ideas. To feel informed, to come face-to-face with the actual words, is both relieving and empowering. The problematic implications of his ideas--eugenics, etc.--are almost entirely absent here; they surface far more troublingly in the Descent of Man, and surface even more in work inspired by but not co More...

0 comments like

Sep 21, 2011

Steve rated it:

Most Victorian writers have a tendency to make me despair, but that is another argument all together, putting aside my dislike of the period I can say that something strange happens in this book. Yes the theory of evolution is a masterpiece of scientific deduction and logic, and to my mind one of the most profoundly beautiful discoveries in our history, yet what is strange is the man who discovered it. Somehow Charles Darwin the person is in every page of this work. his personality is etched int More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 14, 2011

Sean rated it:

This is a work of absolute genius.

I was inspired to read it when watching the film "Creation," which is a beautiful and moving film about the family life of Charles Darwin that sadly was not locally available apparently due to anti-Darwin prejudice (?) so anyway a friend pirated it. Though it didn't focus on his work, it included some quotations from "Origin" which were so well-expressed that I began reading the book that same night. Unfortunately I was in the mid More...

0 comments like

May 21, 2011

Kate rated it:

I don't think this is the version of the book that I read, but it's the only one I found on goodreads that has the title somewhat correct. (It's not The Origin of Species...it's actually On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection.)

Clearly it's a classic for people in science, especially biology and zoology, but it's also been banned, debated ad nauseam, and it's a book everyone should read. Darwin's predictive power and the science he outlines is an example of good science and exp More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 02, 2011

Katherine rated it:

When Charles Darwin published “The Origin of Species” on November 24, 1859, England was plunged into a standoff of science versus theology. The ideas for the journal were gathered on Darwin’s voyage aboard the H.M.S. Beagle. While not the most easily readable book, it is full of information pertinent to both scientists and theorists. Darwin’s intention was not to create a rift between religion and science, but to merely present his findings from a strictly scientific position. Though it was p More...

0 comments like

Dec 20, 2010

Zinger rated it:

This took me a long time to read. It is so wordy and ...I admit very dry reading. I had to keep reminding myself of when it was written, and what was known at the time of him writing it. Then I was able to appreciate Darwin's keen observations and his theories of explanation.

Inheritance or heredity is passed down to offspring from their parents with variation. Variations give some individuals better advantages, and others less advantages in dealing with their environment. Those wi More...

3 comments like

Nov 19, 2010

Felix rated it:

This biological revolution is one of the most important books ever written and it’s hard not to find your spine tingling when you read Darwin expostulate his world-changing theory. You can really see just how the world went from being a mysterious God-created entity to a materialist place we can understand, right in front of your eyes. Darwin’s reasoning is totally devastating, and I discovered reading it that he carried Natural Selection so far into its logical extremities that the superficial More...

0 comments like

Feb 28, 2010

Bryan rated it:

Absolutely a critical book for every living, breathing human being. Darwin's genius and ability to condense such difficult topics and make them palatable and understandable can NOT be overstated.

I truly believe this book is more important and timely than ever before while this country regresses back and is allowing "creationism" to gain in popularity through legitimization of disinformation. Facilities such as Kentucky's own Creation Science Museum reinforce this myth that More...

0 comments like

Jan 24, 2010

Jeffrey rated it:

After the first two chapters I asked, "How could anyone question his conclusions?" The arguments are so clear and the answers so obvious that you would have to be blind and deaf to not get the obvious conclusion that the world is more than 6000 years old and that God did not put everything on Earth just as we found it in the last 2000 years. Of course, those who are blinded by religious belief are deaf to the rational arguments of others. Thus, the argument goes on.

I read More...

1 comment like

Jan 19, 2010

Eric rated it:

This isn't a book you'd read for fun, but for understanding and enrichment. Personally, I found it edifying to understand Darwin's thinking. In his younger days, he had traveled much of the world, and was primarily employed in collecting specimens from each region he visited. Over the years, he connected with farmers to discuss how different plants and animals were bred for certain traits. He catalogued the variations in species he would find in different areas having different "conditions More...

0 comments like

Oct 31, 2009

Daphna rated it:

So wonderful to read, in ways I can't even explain but that have to do with confronting what Darwin actually says after years of being exposed only to hearsay through the cultural ubiquity of his ideas. To feel informed, to come face-to-face with the actual words, is both relieving and empowering. The problematic implications of his ideas--eugenics, etc.--are almost entirely absent here; they surface far more troublingly in the Descent of Man, and surface even more in work inspired by but not More...

0 comments like

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