The French aristocrat who understood evolution 100 years before Darwin

In Histoire Naturelle, a 36-volume book Buffon worked on for 50 years, he also put forward the idea that animals were becoming extinct at a time when most natural historians believed that “God would never allow any species to ever disappear or arise over time”, according to Roberts. “The concept of species change and extinction was very controversial.”

The amount of shit that people have got wrong because of god…

Even without this key insight, Buffon postulated that new species must have come into existence and changed over time, while some species must have gone extinct. “That was a very, very radical idea at the time, and Buffon was censured for it by the Sorbonne: he had to write a statement publicly renouncing everything he had written,” said Roberts. Buffon was later formally accused of heresy for implying that Earth was older than the biblical record.

The number of people that have been wrongly persecuted because of god…

Religion is the most horrible invention in human history. It justifies mistreating others. It's used to control people. It causes people to believe fiction over fact. It's the one thing holding us back more than any other.

Because of God? You mean because of Christianity.
https://www.answeringislamicskeptics.com/evolution-in-islam-overview.html
The amount of shit that people have got wrong because of god…
Lol at atheists who don't believe in gods yet still wants to blame everything on them.
- This is an excellent example of how religious belief can cloud the human brain, impairing reason and thoughtfulness.
  Well done.
- Let me clarify this without judging you: the abstract objects of gods and religions are real, they are here and effect our lives but the religion itself and gods are not real and have no tangible effect on us.
  If you can't relate to this think about ghosts - we talk about them, people are afraid of them and might even commit awful acts deluded by the fact that ghosts exist. That's real. But we have no evidence that ghosts exist, so ghosts themselves are not real.
- Wtf do you even think you're saying? That a sincerely held belief that religion is toxic is based on fake internet points? I hated religion long before we got online. Your comment is empty and stupid.
- They are not blaming a god, they are blaming peoples reason for doing horrible things. There's lots of them, but claiming it's something god wants has historically been one of the more common ones.
  Their phrasing must have confused you, but as seen in all the downvotes you received it's a commonly used way of saying this.
- I can believe I'm going to get eaten by a talking meatball when I go to dinner tonight.
  The talking meatball obviously isn't going to eat me, it isn't real.
  The impact the talking meatball has on my decision making remains a real observable thing.
  Nobody is blaming god here, they're blaming the concept of god/gods, and how that concept has resulted in many people treating others poorly.
  Note, that's not a judgement on you (presumably) having beliefs, I believe there's probably something out there myself. The talking meatball is purely illustrative.
- I disagree with their sentiment, but dear god you have terrible interpretation of their point.

Even Darwin in his own book points out people who had these ideas before him. But that's not enough, you can't just go "ha here's an idea" and leave it at that. You have to work to prove it, and that's what Darwin did. The idea itself wasn't so revolutionary but everyone else's was just slightly wrong. Some for example believed evolution worked on all beings except humans, because we were work of god, and similar. Darwin came up with a correct one by using theirs as a base and then made his own, tested it and saw it worked. The amount of work Darwin invested in this theory alone was staggering. In fact the book itself "The Origin of Species" was something he was forced to write because people got afraid his work will go undocumented and he'll die soon. So he wrote that book as a summary with more books to come later in expanded and detailed form, which never came.

He is credited with discovering natural selection not evolution. The two are often confused and he is associated with evolution.
Natural selection is how most animals came to be. Animal breeders also do selection, unnatural or artificial selection, but the process is still evolution. People definitely thought animals change, they even changed animals themselves. But the detailed understanding of how and why they changed is what Darwin discovered. Like you say this took a lot of work and insight.
People had ideas and hypothesis, but no theory till Darwin.

Only a hundred years ahead and didn't nail survival of the fittest? Pshh, amateur.

Here's Lucretius in 50 BCE:

In the beginning, there were many freaks. Earth undertook Experiments - bizarrely put together, weird of look Hermaphrodites, partaking of both sexes, but neither; some Bereft of feet, or orphaned of their hands, and others dumb, Being devoid of mouth; and others yet, with no eyes, blind. Some had their limbs stuck to the body, tightly in a bind, And couldn't do anything, or move, and so could not evade Harm, or forage for bare necessities. And the Earth made Other kinds of monsters too, but in vain, since with each, Nature frowned upon their growth; they were not able to reach The flowering of adulthood, nor find food on which to feed, Nor be joined in the act of Venus.

For all creatures need Many different things, we realize, to multiply And to forge out the links of generations: a supply Of food, first, and a means for the engendering seed to flow Throughout the body and out of the lax limbs; and also so The female and the male can mate, a means they can employ In order to impart and to receive their mutual joy.

Then, many kinds of creatures must have vanished with no trace Because they could not reproduce or hammer out their race. For any beast you look upon that drinks life-giving air, Has either wits, or bravery, or fleetness of foot to spare, Ensuring its survival from its genesis to now."

De Rerum Natura book 5 lines 837-859

Bonus round, nearly nailed Mendelian trait inheritance too:

Sometimes children take after their grandparents instead, Or great-grandparents, bringing back the features of the dead. This is since parents carry elemental seeds inside – Many and various, mingled many ways – their bodies hide Seeds that are handed, parent to child, all down the family tree. Venus draws features from these out of her shifting lottery – Bringing back an ancestor’s look or voice or hair. Indeed These characteristics are just as much the result of certain seed As are our faces, limbs and bodies. Females can arise From the paternal seed, just as the male offspring, likewise, Can be created from the mother’s flesh. For to comprise A child requires a doubled seed – from father and from mother. And if the child resembles one more closely than the other, That parent gave the greater share – which you can plainly see Whichever gender – male or female – that the child may be.

De Rerum Natura book 4 lines 1217-1232

He was close with the "seeds" parents pass onto their children (not knowing what genes or DNA were, or course), but he should have been able to empirically figure out that this was incorrect:
And if the child resembles one more closely than the other, That parent gave the greater share – which you can plainly see
Because sometimes children can look like their grandparent more than a parent, meaning the "seeds" are there, just latent.
- You mean like the first few lines of what I quoted where he talks about how traits from grandparents or great grandparents can come back?

Nice and interesting read, thank you for posting.

What a fascinating guy! He really was ahead of the curve. A pity his contemporaries repressed him so much.

Makes you wonder if there's anyone we're doing this to right now. Also the guy was a bourguignon so that's extra points in my book.
- Bound to be, science history has many of these figures.

What is that animal?

A loris
- Thanks!