Darwin in plain English?

This is my contribution to the #upgoerfive meme in which we are challenged to use this text editor to ‘explain a complex topic using only the 1,000 most common English words’. In my case, I have tried to re-write the wonderful final paragraph of ‘On the Origin of Species’. (Apologies in advance to my fellow Brits for using the ugly z-version spelling of the word realise, but the American-English text editor was very insistent!)

It is interesting to think about all the animals and green things we see in world, and to realize that, although they seem so different from each other, and need each other to live, they have all been made by the same, fixed, easy steps acting all around us. These easy steps, taken in the largest sense, being growing and having babies; being like your parents (but not exactly like them); and being able to avoid dying for as long as possible. In this way, even animals with the biggest brains are made. This is a great way to look at life, with its several powers, having been first breathed into a few forms or into one; and it is great to realize that, while this world has carried on going around the sun following the same fixed, easy steps, from so small a beginning lots and lots of forms most beautiful and most full of wonder have been, and are, changing over time.

Thanks to Karen James, from whom I totally stole the opening sentence of this post (and the phrase green things), for alerting me to the #upgoerfive meme.

Richard Carter, FCD

Writer and photographer Richard Carter, FCD is the founder of the Friends of Charles Darwin. He lives in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.WebsiteNewsletterMastodonetc…

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