re: #7 The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

Zoonomia; or the Laws of Organic Life, by his grandfather Erasmus Darwin, also influenced Charles.

Creationists and IDists seem to assume Darwin created his ideas in a vacuum, given their tendency to demonize him. In fact, parts of his theory of evolution had been kicking around for decades. He was the first to suggest a mechanism and a reason for traits to be inherited generation by generation..