Charles Lyell and Darwin

          During the mid-nineteenth century, renowned geologist Sir Charles Lyell was a strong believer in a geological doctrine known as uniformitarianism. The uniformitarianism doctrine asserts that geologic processes, occur at the same rates that are even being observed today and do so in the same manner which accounts for all of Earth's current geological features. In fact, Lyell began to develop fresh principles of reasoning when it came to geology and wrote a book called "Principles of Geology" in which he addressed these principles.
         Lyell's scientific principles that he discussed in his book were based off his belief that geological phenomena occurs through natural processes of today and don't differ from the past which would make earth an ancient planet because these everyday natural processes occur incredibly slowly. With this being said, Lyell's highly important and influential work was instrumental in forming the belief that the universe is billions of years old which made it difficult for Lyell to subscribe to various evolutionary theories however, still having a profound influence on Charles Darwin.  
         Lyell's scientific principles had a major impact on Darwin's evolutionary theories due to the fact that it wasn't until he accepted Lyell's theory of the earths age that he was able to determine an acceptable time frame for his own theories. Although Lyell and Darwin became close friends and respected colleagues, ironically Lyell was reticent in accepting Darwin's evolution model of evolution primarily due to the fact that he did not see concrete evidence to support it. In addition, Darwin didn't' take to kindly to Lyell's repeated suggestion that Darwin's theory was merely a modification of Jean Baptiste Lamark's works which Darwin had always rejected. Lyell did however accept the theory of natural selection and still respected Darwin very much.


http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/352672/Sir-Charles-Lyell-Baronet/4377/New-approach-to-geology

Charles Lyell and Evolution

        
          When Charles Lyell began studying geography, he did so under the prevailing theory of catastrophism. Catastrophism is the idea that the geological phenomena occurred through a few catastrophic events in earth's history. However, Lyell attributed this theory as a way to support biblical stories such as the great flood in a scientific way. So he rejected such theory and began searching for other explanations such as those asserted by Scottish farmer James Hutton who claimed that the earth is not changed by catastrophe's but by imperceptibly slow changes.
         Lyell embraced this theory and began travelling to find evidence to support it. During his travels he came across mounting evidence for the numerous rises and falls of sea level, giant volcanoes built on top of seemingly older rocks,  the processes which cause earthquakes and eruptions that were powerful enough to form mountain ranges. He concluded that valleys weren't work of biblical events such as giant floods - instead they resulted from a slow grinding force of wind and water.
         These findings produced Lyell's own version of geology which became known as uniformitarianism. This principle insists that the earth's natural processes which happen uniformly alter it over a very slow period of time. He believed the same way Hutton did that the history of Earth is vast and directionless and also believed that the history of life was no different which is why Darwin thoroughly embraced Lyell's principles and theories as they provided evidence to support his own. With Lyell's geological principles and theories, Darwin  considered evolution as a kind of biological uniformitarianism based off the influence of Lyell.

 Darwin without Lyell

            Although Darwin was heavily influenced by Darwin, I do believe that he would've still achieved finding supporting evidence for his theories without Lyell albeit it would've taken a lot longer. Lyell I believe was the catalyst for Darwin to really tout his theories as credible in that Lyell had inadvertent supporting evidence to help lend credence to Darwin's theories. Darwin still needed a time frame to support his theory and Lyell gave him that with the old-age earth and natural process geographical principles. Lyell helped to fill in the holes of Darwin's theory and that was something he very much needed.

Darwin vs Religion

When Darwin released his book "On The Origin of Species", it was met with mixed reviews amongst the religious community. The Church of England were against the book while the liberal Anglicans supported it.  In 1860 during the Oxford Evolution Debate with the  British Association for the Advancement of Science,  a Bishop of Oxford named Samuel Wilberforce was a dissenting voice against Darwin's explanation eliciting a fierce debate in which Joseph Hooker and Thomas Huxley argued for Darwin however it was clear how critical the debate was demonstrating the ongoing struggle between religion and science.