Blog 6

In the second half of Darwin’s autobiography the first thing I found notable was he was willing to try alternative therapies for his illness. Even though he was skeptical he was willing to try hydropathy therapy. This showed how he was open minded and I believe this to be a trait many scientist have. He was open to finding new medical treatment the same way he was open to finding new truths of the natural world. All though he was open minded to new ideas he still questioned them. Questioning ideas rather then believing they are true with out evidence is another trait I believe make a scientist. Darwin was able to test out this new treatment to form his own option without blindly believing a physician. 
A similarity to Franklin I found was they both questioned their faith. Like Franklin it was a slow change in beliefs. Neither one simply woke up one day with a realization that what they had believed in was wrong. Both started by asking questions and being curious. I find this different from most cases where I see people change believes. All the cases from my personal life where I see people change religion or question it is because they don't care. They've either are told by someone what to believe or do it to please someone else.  Darwin and Franklin differ because they questioned it to find the truth of religion. Darwin’s last little bit of faith was lost after both is father and eldest daughter died, so I'm curious if that didn't' happen if his faith would have been lost still. 
The last thing I noticed in Darwin that reminded me of characteristic of scientist is he made the origin of species perfect before publishing it. This took Darwin 20+ years to put all together. He could have easily but it out sooner with a simpler and less detailed explanation. Instead he made sure that what he was finding was true and that he had all of the truth. While he was writing he kept coming up with more and more questions that he felt like he needed to answered in order to explain the idea of evolution. Also in the time he was working on the origin of species another naturalist was publishing his own work on evolution and Darwin was willing to work with him. I thought this showed that both of them genuinely cared about the theory of evolution and not just to get credit or honor form it.

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