Here are the facts of history as we know them. Anyone can certainly disagree, but unless you have a source your view is subjective and unsupported.
1. Darwin, contrary (and remarkably) to the rampant atheism in his family, began life as a Christian. He held a degree in theology and intended to become a country vicar.
2. While on board the
Beagle he admits in his
Autobiography that he more or less held the Bible as literal truth. Eldredge, in "Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life" (2005) establishes Darwin a Paleyan Creationist during this period of his life, that is, the early
Beagle years.
3. "Darwin abandoned Christianity in the two years after his return to England....in part this was caused....by his discovery of the invalidity of the argument from design" (Mayr,
The Growth of Biological Thought 1982:402).
4. In 1837 Darwin makes first known sketch of his "Tree of Life".
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I can list as many scholars as anyone may like, saying: the Tree of Life or Darwin's Notebook writings during the late 1830s = Materialism.
Thesaurus.com
The above Roget's Thesaurus link substantiates that "materialist" and "agnostic" and "atheist" are all SYNONYMS.
5. However, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Edition) the term "agnostic" was not coined until 1869, that is, 30 years after Tree of Life sketch, and 10 years AFTER
Origin of Species was written and published.
6. Darwin became an atheist during the late 1830s.
7. God is rejected as Creator as is special creation.
8. Darwin deemed the Fuegians
"the lowest form of humanity on earth....In 1838 while struggling to understand how evolution worked, Darwin's thoughts returned to the Fuegians and their apparent similarity
to primates in the London Zoo" (Larson 2004:67). This is the origin of human evolution, after the theory was conceived and the first drawing of the Tree of Life by Darwin in 1837. Professor Larson, is, of course, an evolutionist.
Jonathan Wells: The only evidence for human evolution during Darwin's life was "
similarity to living apes" (inexact quote, can retrieve exact quote upon request).
In sequence, God is rejected as Creator THEN Darwin sees "
similarity" and makes racist correspondence. We know Darwin was openly racist and we know
Origin was written to say Paley's God is not responsible for the appearance of design seen in nature. In a rare moment of honesty, Talk Origins admits:
CA005.1: Darwin's racism
I own a copy of all books mentioned in this topic. Didn't know any of this ? I am not surpised. The paucity and scarcity of "genuine" hominid missing links coupled with the facts layed out here = why human evolution can be dismissed as the needs of atheism. Its racist origin demonstrates the high moral ground of Creationism.
Ray
Edited by Herepton, : No reason given.
Edited by Herepton, : No reason given.
Edited by Herepton, : No reason given.
Edited by Herepton, : No reason given.