1. While many scientists and scholars who preceded Darwin greatly influenced his ideas and his research, it is my belief that economist Thomas Malthus had the greatest influence on Darwin and his renowned work.
2. According to http://www.allaboutscience.org/thomas-malthus-faq.htm, Thomas Malthus was primarily an economist who is most notable for his knowledge of human populations and why they will constantly surpass the number of resources available, which will inevitably result in issues like starvation and nutrition-related diseases. Malthus' essay on this subject, entitled Essay on the Principle of Population, was one of the works that inspired Darwin's work; the book expressed the concept that people will always outnumber the resources required for them to all survive, which led to Darwin's principle of natural selection that states that only the most dominant members of a species will survive and adapt.
3. One of the bullet points in the prompt addressed by Thomas Malthus in his work is the one encapsulating the idea that "Resources are limited", which is the fundamental message within his essay on human populations. Malthus influenced this idea with his essay by sharing with the world a glimpse into the reality of human desire versus the scarcity of the resources found within planet earth. With Malthus and his research establishing that resources are undoubtedly limited, Darwin used this knowledge to conclude that resources must be earned by a select group from every species, essentially the most dominant and fittest. This idea is encompassed by the bullet point entitled "Who gets better access to these limited resources," which derives from the previous bullet point as well as from the findings of Malthus' work.
4. While it is feasible to believe that Darwin could have potentially developed his theory of natural selection even without the influence of Thomas Malthus, I do not think he would have been capable of doing so. Malthus was one of a select few individuals of his time who addressed the issue of scarcity of resources and the effect that it has on society. People were skeptical of Malthus' ideas so naturally not many were willing to accept them. Without the work of Malthus, Darwin would most likely not have had the benefit of prior expertise on the limited nature of resources, which was essential in the creation of his theory of natural selection.
5. The attitude of the church affected Darwin by showing him how resistant many people would be to his revolutionary ideas regarding evolution. Religious individuals were outraged at the concept of natural selection because it did not involve the work of a deity and defied the idea that a powerful being is looking after the world and all of its inhabitants; in other words, Darwin's ideas provided a harsh reality that they were unwilling to accept. The negative responses of the religious community had a primarily negative effect on Darwin and the publication of his book because he most likely realized the level of resistance that many would have towards him and his ideologies. In the end, however, Darwin must have realized that all great innovators face obstacles, but in the end it will reduce the ignorance of society by sharing his ideas with the world.
