Burial At Westminster Abbey

When Charles Darwin died in 1882, his family originally intended for him to be buried in the family plot at St Mary’s Church in Downe, Kent, where he had lived for 40 years. However, following his death there was a public and scientific outcry for a state-level burial to take place at Westminster Abbey. Why at Westminster Abbey though?

Westminster Abbey is a historic church in the United Kingdom, often regarded as one of the most iconic and significant buildings in British history. Over 1,000 years old, it has witnessed the coronation of every British monarch since 1066, along with numerous royal weddings and the burials of 17 monarchs. Interestingly, it is also home to the tombs and memorials of legendary figures — poets like Shakespeare, scientists like Newton, and statesmen like Churchill, whose influence shaped not only Britain but the world.

Unlike the prodigiously gifted Newton, Darwin was not seen as extraordinary in his youth. Many regarded him as merely average.

"It is my opinion, as a certified biography nut, that Charles Robert Darwin would have ranked near the middle of the Harvard School graduating class of 1986. Yet he is now famous in the history of science." - Charlie Munger

Yet it was this ‘average’ man whose ideas would redefine biology and secure him a place among the giants at Westminster Abbey. So how did this quiet, unremarkable student go on to challenge the very foundations of science?

The Lucky Break - Voyage Aboard Ship HMS Beagle

In 1831, a curious 22-year-old with no clear career and an obsession with nature set sail on a voyage that would reshape science. Charles Darwin had just finished at Cambridge and was expected to join the clergy—but he found more joy in collecting beetles than in preaching sermons. So how did he land the lucky break that put him aboard the HMS Beagle?

The Royal Navy was sending HMS Beagle to map South America and the Galápagos for military strategy. The captain, an amateur scientist, wanted a geologist along for the ride. However one after another several expert geologists declined the offer. The captain then decided to take a chance on Darwin — a young man with sharp eyes, a restless mind, and an insatiable curiosity.

While the captain charted coastlines, Darwin collected fossils, observed wildlife, and filled notebooks with what would one day ignite a revolution in science.

Was this opportunity really a "lucky break" though? Let's take a closer look. It is evident that there is indeed luck involved for several pieces to fall into place for the voyage:

• The Royal Navy providing funding for the expedition.
• The captain happened to be an amateur scientist.
• The captain wanted to have a geologist join along.
• All expert geologists declined the offer.
• Darwin was fresh out of college and was free to take the offer i.e. right place, right time.

However, there are innate behavior traits that Darwin possessed which arguably proved to be far more important and had nothing to do with luck. For example:

• A deep curiosity to understand the ways of the natural world. In fact the curiosity was so deep that he wrote an entire book dedicated to just earthworms.
• He took his chances. He said yes to the HMS Beagle voyage when all other "experts" before him rejected the opportunity.
• He was diligent and had a remarkable work ethic for someone in his early twenties. Darwin made the most of his time on the voyage, meticulously documenting observations across various field notebooks. Altogether, he produced thousands of pages—including 770 in his travel diary, 368 on zoology, and 1,383 on geology. These extensive writings would later form the foundation of his seminal work, On the Origin of Species, published 23 years after the voyage ended.

Put another way, the Royal Navy launched numerous scientific and exploratory expeditions during that era. But how many of them led to a seminal work like On the Origin of Species? None. As we’ve seen, beyond the initial stroke of luck, it all came down to the innate traits Darwin brought with him—curiosity, proactiveness, and diligence.

Being Open To Stimuli From The Environment

"We are hunters; we are only truly alive in those moments when we improvise; no schedule, just small surprises and stimuli from the environment." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

In the modern world, we are moving increasingly towards premade & prepackaged solutions for most things. We want complete control over our schedules. We also want to be able to predict the future with precision.

Charles Darwin however operated in the exact opposite way. He stumbled upon his discoveries by simply following his natural curiosity. He kept an open mind and remained flexible to explore whatever stimuli the environment around him was providing.

Darwin was not looking for any specific species or variations. He just unexpectedly observed the variations in tortoises across different Islands - for example, he noticed that the tortoises had long necks on islands that were drier and short necks on islands that were moist. He later realized that these variations were not random. It helped each tortoise survive better in its specific island environment. For example, longer necks helped the tortoises in stretching to reach up to food on drier islands.

Darwin had the good fortune of unexpected observations that ignited his thinking and led to his extraordinary insight:

"To my imagination it is far more satisfactory to look at [well-adapted species] not as specially endowed or created instincts, but as small consequences of one general law leading to the advancement of all organic beings—namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die." - Charles Darwin, Origin Of Species, 1859

Relentless Pursuit Of Disconfirming Evidence

"Invert, always invert." - Carl Jacobi

Charles Darwin first formulated his theory of natural selection in 1838, just two years after returning from his voyage on the HMS Beagle. He didn’t publish it, however, until 1859. Why did Darwin take 20+ years to publish? What exactly was he doing in those two decades?

• Darwin was self-aware and knew that his theory would be controversial since it challenged religious and scientific beliefs of the time. So, he was on a mission to build an airtight case by relentlessly pursuing disconfirming evidence to test the strength of his ideas.
• He immersed himself in every possible counterargument to prepare a robust defense of his theory. He gathered overwhelming evidence—from fossils to breeding experiments—to make his argument undeniable.
• The perfectionist in him drove him to continually refine his ideas, revising and testing his theory to make it as strong and convincing as possible.
• He was intentional in his efforts to counter the harmful outcomes of cognitive biases of man such as the Dunning-Kruger effect and inconsistency-avoidance tendency . Darwin famously said "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
• Charles Darwin intensely challenged every single one of his beloved ideas. He trained himself to deeply consider any evidence tending to disprove any of his hypothesis.

"The life of Darwin demonstrates how a turtle may outrun a hare, aided by extreme objectivity, which helps the objective person end up like the only player without a blindfold in a game of pin the tail on the donkey. If you minimize objectivity, you ignore not only a lesson from Darwin but also one from Einstein. Einstein said that his successful theories came from “curiosity, concentration, perseverance, and self-criticism.” And by self-criticism, he meant the testing and destruction of his own well-loved ideas." - Charlie Munger

Acting With Integrity – The Wallace Wake-Up Call

In 1858, Darwin received a letter from Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist working in the Malay Archipelago. Wallace had independently arrived at the same theory of natural selection—and he sent it to Darwin for feedback and possibly help getting it published.

Darwin was stunned. Wallace’s ideas mirrored his own almost exactly. He was on the verge of losing credit for an idea he had nurtured for decades.

Rather than racing Wallace to publication or suppressing the letter, Darwin made a remarkable choice. In a moment that could have sparked rivalry, he upheld scientific ethics and chose collaboration over competition:

• He consulted with friends and respected scientists Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker.
• Together, they arranged a joint presentation of both Darwin’s and Wallace’s papers at the Linnean Society of London in July 1858.
• Neither man attended the reading.
• Darwin’s paper included excerpts from his earlier unpublished writings, establishing that he had developed the idea well before Wallace.

Just over a year later, in November 1859, Darwin published On the Origin of Species. Unlike Wallace’s brief summary, Darwin’s book presented a detailed, evidence-backed argument—shaped by two decades of meticulous work—which cemented its place as a landmark in scientific history.

Darwin wasn’t the only one to conceive of natural selection—but he was the one who developed it rigorously, backed it with evidence, and had the humility and integrity to share credit when it mattered.

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