Quotation from Darwin (Evolution)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Friday, March 28, 2008, 23:38 (6082 days ago) @ Matt

There are good reasons for citing the 1859 first edition of "Origin of Species". In later editions Darwin tried to take account of criticisms, such as those of his inadequate speculations on genetics, but only made his position on this issue worse. It was not until 1900 that the work of Mendel was rediscovered and provided clues to the correct explanation. In fact some of the geneticists thought their discoveries disproved Darwin's thesis. It took twenty years or more to achieve a "neo-Darwinian" synthesis of genetics and natural selection, thanks to the work of Fisher, Haldane and others. - Steve Jones for example based his 1999 book "Almost Like a Whale", which is an updating of "Origin of Species", on the 1859 edition, and concluded with exactly the same passage as cited by Richard Dawkins. - As regards the inclusion or not of the phrase "by the Creator" after the word "breathed". This is surely a trivial point. The word "breathed" already implies that there was a someone who did the breathing, if only metaphorically. - By the way which edition of the Bible is the most authentic?