It's widely believed that Charles Darwin lost his faith when he discovered evolution. And many contemporary atheists proclaim themselves followers of Darwin in this sense. Michael Shermer, for instance, writes that he abandoned Christianity when he learned about evolution; finally he could see how there could be design--or the appearance of design--without a designer. Richard Dawkins writes that it was Darwin who finally made it possible to be an "intellectually fulfilled atheist."
In reality Darwin's atheism had little to do with his discovery of evolution. First of all Darwin was never a very devout Christian. He was raised as a nominal Anglican. It says something about Anglicanism in Britain that a lukewarm Christian like Darwin actually considered becoming a clergyman. What turned Darwin against Christianity, however, was two things.
First, several of his children either died or has chronic illnesses. This was probably heriditary, as Darwin himself suffered for most of his life from one ailment or the other. When Darwin's daughter Annie died at a young age, however, Darwin was inconsolable. Usually a man of the stiff upper lip, Darwin could not stop himself from weeping even in public. Darwin blamed God for Annie's untimely death. This was several years before Darwin published his Origin of Species.
After Annie's death, Darwin began to reflect morbidly on mortality, and during his process he recalled that his own famous grandfather Erasmus Darwin, as well as several other family members and friends, were unbelievers. Since Darwin saw them as good and respectable people, he angrily fulminated against the doctrine of eternal damnation, asking what kind of a God would consign good people to hell just because they refused to accept Christianity? The thought of all these people in hell filled Darwin with such revulsion that he completely jettisoned Christianity.
At the same time Darwin recognized that his theory of evolution was quite compatible with Christianity. When the American biologist Asa Gray wrote Darwin to say that his theory of evolution demonstrated how God created species, Darwin congratulated Gray for being the first one to see the point. In England, the preacher-poet Charles Kingsley argued for the compatibility with evolution and Christianity, and Darwin encouraged his efforts.
True, evolution is inconsistent with the six-day account of creation, but since the earliest days of Christianity, Christian writers like Augustine have had no problem with interpreting the first book of Genesis allegorically. After all the Hebrew word can mean "day" but it can also mean "period" or "epoch." Only a small segment of Christians--mostly fundamentalists--are uncompromisingly wedded to the six-day account.
Evolution, however, says nothing about who or what created the universe. Evolution doesn't even say anything about how life got started. Evolution merely describes how one life form gave rise to another. Somewhat comically writers like Dawkins and Daniel Dennett argue that evolution is a kind of master key that unlocks the universe. It isn't hard to see that atheism is getting in the way of clear reasoning here. If you doubt this, go to Youtube and watch again my debate with Daniel Dennett. Unfortunately I cannot also direct you to my debate with Dawkins, since Timorous Richard doesn't want to get into the arena with me.
Darwin lost his faith over the "problem of evil," an issue that has been coming up in my recent debates, and one that I intend to address in future blog postings. It's time to set at rest, however, the old myth that evolution is a scientific refutation of theism in general or Christianity in particular. Darwin himself knew it was not so, even if his dimmer acolytes haven't figured that out yet.
Reader Comments ( Page 3 of 86)
31. Seriously--does Dinesh do ANYTHING but lie? Darwin wasn't an atheist (he still somewhat believed in god), and only the worst lias claim he was. In fact, the only good part about this article is that Dinesh didn't throw in the lie that Darwin recanted on his deathbed!
Why must you lie, Dinesh? Why must you lie? Remember: bearing false witness IS a sin! Darwin went to the seminary, and he wasn't an atheist. Please stop lying, Dinesh. For your own sake: stop lying.
Knight_of_BAAWA at 10:09AM on May 5th 2008
32. Other than that, I must say that this is one of your extremely rare good articles. You are absolutely write that Darwin did not lose his faith due to evolution and about the effect that the death of his daughter had on him.
-James
-------------------
Hey, when you're write, you're write.
Dinesh! A question for you to ponder. No need to answer. Not that you would.
How does it feel to get all of your compliments from the people that can't spell to save their asses?
Godless Heathen Brian at 10:11AM on May 5th 2008
33. AGAIN with the fabrications from DD. His Strawmen have Strawmen. He has zero credibility in the world of the scholars. Like another poster, I suscribe to the leading scientists when it comes to evolution by natural selection. Millions of fossils later, the theories have been carefully refined.
I wonder who the suck-up Rev really is? He oculd be another pseudonym for DD. Note the part about the "cussing". Pretty soon, DD will be suppressing free speech, and only sycophants will be posting.
But no, he knows that the controversy that is stirred up by his nonsense and lies is what keeps him on AOL.
What a jerk-off.
Linda at 10:12AM on May 5th 2008
34. By the way, if goddess or pboy are here, I did post some stuff on the old blog to you before I noticed the new DD blog here.
My big mind stuff along with a few coincidences, one that happened while I was posting today. (Pboy's seen the big mind stuff before, not the new stuff I posted after)
Anyhow, let me know what you think, Goddess.
Godless Heathen Brian at 10:17AM on May 5th 2008
35. LARRY,
The hyperdimensional universe model is not arbitrary, although 11 is the most popular. It is mathematically predicted by Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism, Einstein's theory of relativity, et al, for the number of degrees of freedom necessary for supersymmetry theory... and stuff.
Mokele Mbembe at 10:19AM on May 5th 2008
36. mankind's knowledge is in it's infancy when it comes to understanding the creation of the universe and its many complexities. for the so called scientist to claim to know anything more about the 10 to 11 dimensional or infinite dimensional universe than a native running around the jungle is as rediculous as a flea climbing up an elephants butt with intention s of rape.
larry lucente at 10:21AM on May 5th 2008
37. Pati, please stop posting whole books. My scroll finger is cramped.
A link will do, with perhaps a pertinent excerpt, a couple of paragraphs or so...
Not trying to offend. Just an fyi. :-)
Godless Heathen Brian at 10:23AM on May 5th 2008
38. Pati,
Ummm, what have you just done?
Mokele Mbembe at 10:23AM on May 5th 2008
39. I think she just posted the entire library of congress...
Godless Heathen Brian at 10:26AM on May 5th 2008
40. larry,
Who cares what they say. They're ONLY the SMARTEST minds on the PLANET! I'll bet they write papers about crazy unicorn theories, and their professors say "Yes, this is very SCIENTIFIC! We will publish it as TRUTH in the morning!"
Mokele Mbembe at 10:26AM on May 5th 2008
41. One thing's for sure. Apparently, there's no shortage of places where I can find that book...
Godless Heathen Brian at 10:28AM on May 5th 2008
42. Well blow down. Dinesh ALMOST has his facts straight. Almost. But as always he leaves stuff out that contradicts what he says. This is not as bad as his rants about Galileo in which he simply ignores fact in favor of his ideological position. But still...
Darwin was, at one point, a fairly strong believer and was headed for seminary to study to become a preacher. But he was an amateur naturalist at the time and was more interested in collecting bugs than learning about god. So he instead got on the Beagle and the rest was history. That five year trip was the single most important formative event in his life that lead to the theory of evolution. His daughter Annie did not die until 1851, and by then Darwin was already hip deep in his research.
The problem with Dinesh is that he only presents half truths. In this case it was not fatal to his blog, but often it is.
Dinesh says his daughter di
Grant LaFleche at 1:31PM on May 5th 2008
43. GHB,
No, it's only all of Wikipedia in every language.
ありがと・パチ・ちゃん
Mokele Mbembe at 10:30AM on May 5th 2008
44. Still luv ya pati. Just teasing. :-)
Godless Heathen Brian at 10:30AM on May 5th 2008
45. rev, Darwin did not degenerate. He was reborn in brilliance due to his rejection of silly mythology (ie: christianity).
JefFlyingV at 10:32AM on May 5th 2008