Historical Influences on Darwin

1. I believe that Sir Charles Lyell had the biggest influence on Darwin and his development of on his theory f natural selection.
2. Sir Charles Lyell popularized the idea of uniformitarian which proved the earth was very old and has been around for a long time. He believed that geology could become a science on its own and not be tied to the Bible. Lyell wanted to prove that the earth didnt just form from major natural disasters but over time by the levels of the sea and tectonic plates. Lyell made geology what it is today.
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/_0_0/history_12
3. There are many ways which Lyell could have influenced Darwin on his findings. Darwins thought that people do not evolove but populations do. Lyell always thought about the big picture, people in his time thought landmarks on the land such as mountains were formed by a volcano erupting and he looked back to find it happened over time, like Darwin with evolution. Lyell found that things happen over a time not overnight and Darwin followed this idea.
4. Darwin was a great scientist and would have still developed the idea of natural selection. I believe that Darwin would have developed this theory with any person as his influence. Lyell forced Darwin to look at the big picture of things but Darwin found how living things evolve and how there is not an over population of certain species.
5. At the time of Darwin was alive to go against the church was a big mistake and Darwin essentially was going against the church at the time. Darwin kept most of his findings to himself, close friends and relatives. When creating his book he was nervous to get it published because of all of the ridicule that could harm not only to him but his family and friends as well.