Darwin's Faith in the 'Origin of Species'

This is my first post.Just to keep this topic specific, I am well aware there was a certain evolution in the faith/belief of Charles Darwin. I wonder if you were aware of this. This post is simply interested in his faith at the time of the publishing of the Origin of Species (1867).
It is interested in the faith of Darwin because a vocal minority see an incompatiblity between faith in God and faith in evolution. Darwin didn't. These were not the musings of a faithless athiest.Given the oftentimes mythical battle between religion and science, it is easy to see how in the case of evolution, its populizer Charles Darwin would be seen on the side of science against religion.But that is not the case. Darwin did contrast himself with "the great majority of naturalists who believed that species were immutable productions and specially created" (p. 87) and he did state that "the view which most naturalists had until recently held, namely that the species had been independantly created, is erroneous. (87)" Darwin did indeed believe that species do undergo modifications and that existing forms of life are descendants of preexisting forms. But Darwin concluded hid Origin of the Species with the conviction that his theory "accors better with what we know about the laws impressed by the Creator. (174)" He described the 'grandeur' or his view and speaks of how God would have "originally breathed into a few forms or into one... (174)." At the time of the Origin's release Darwin was still both a scientist and a believer in God. The artificial dichotomy that is said to have existed at this time, is non-existent in his own writings at the time.Darwin's theory did raise a number of theological questions. One concern was that the theory of evolution was incompatible with a literal reading of Genesis, but in actual fact, "this sort of objection was much less widespread than is commonly supposed.(28) " (Nemesszeghy and Russell, 'The Theology of Evolution.' Notre Dame, IN: Fides Publishers Inc, 1971). As it is today, Biblical literalism is confined to a small group or non-conformist Christians. The great geological advancements of the 1800's had encouraged the majority of educated Christians to abandon a literal reading of the six-day Creation. The Catholic adjustment was especially easy as men of influence long before (Gregory Nyssa, Basil, Augustine, and Acquinas) had all expressed thoughts akin to a symbolic reading of early Genesis with even Augustine proposing a quasi-evolutionary concept.***The Origin quotes come from the 2001 edition of editor of Darwin's writings, Phillip Appleman's 'Charles Darwin.'***Check out my newly created Discussion group called the Sparrow Center:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sparrowcenter/Luther Maher

Moved to Social Issues and Creation/Evolution

I recently read a Darwin biography by Janet Brown; it comes in two parts, Voyaging and the Power of Place. The books are excellent, I highly recommend them.According to Brown, Darwin never was a firm believer; he was just never really interested in the subject. When he got engaged to Emma Wedgwood, who was a firm believer her entire life, they wrote letters to each other about her concern that he would go to hell. He was very sympathetic to her beliefs and did what he could to comfort her. However, her concern remained throughout their lives together. Also, he was very conscious of the religious sensibilities of Victorian England at the time. He didn't like confrontation, he didn't like offending people. These reasons, among others, are why he waiting so long to publish his theory.It seems that his beliefs in a Creator at all waned over time. The death of his daughter had a negative impact, and he took no comfort that she was now in heaven as his wife did.In the Origin of Species (published in 1859, are you referring to a specific edition??? 1867, would have been like the 6th edition) he avoided as much as he could two subjects; God and the evolution of man. He does mention both briefly in the book, but nothing extensive and really that informative about his thoughts.I don’t think Darwin really felt that belief and evolution were compatible. He avoided the subject publicly as much he could. He used phrases about the Creator in his books more because that is an idiom people understood, not because that is what he believed.Two of his closest scientific friends, Asa Gray and Charles Lyell, were believers. Most relevant to your argument probably, he often wrote letters to Gray complaining about Gray explaining evolution as God directed. Darwin maintained that the evidence shows that evolution is random and not directed. (Don’t remember the exact details, darnit, but the point is he did criticize Gray about it.)His other close scientific friend, Thomas Huxley, was more in line with Darwin's beliefs about God. Huxley, a harsh critic of religion, coined the term agnosticism, and Darwin called himself one. By the time Darwin wrote Descent of Man and to the end of his days, he was very close to being an atheist.Edited by Clark, : typoEdited by Clark, : No reason given.

There isnt much in your post that I disagree with. I just want to say that there are other relevant materials detailing Darwin's beliefs and thoughts on certain Bible stories (particularly the Letters of Darwin, whose title I do not recall, but which is compiled by a nephew or some relative).All I wanted to show was the mentioning of God in the 'Origin,' and only breifly did I mention that his Evolution was not seen as being incompatible with the Christian religion. I could document this part further I guess. While certainly there were religious people opposed, there still exists today some opposed. But I think it is important to remember that Darwin did not present the Origin to counter religious faith in God, and the majority of those religious in his day did not see it as such.

I agree with what you are getting at and should have mentioned that in my post. I personally don't see evolution and belief as completely opposed though I am not a believer myself. And you couldn't get that they were opposed from the book. Origin of the Species definitely bothered people's religious sensibilities and Darwin did his best to avoid this. To some degree, it was written to counter Natural Theology, specifically Paley's watchmaker argument.The letters you referred to were published by his son Francis I believe.

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I personally don't see evolution and belief as completely opposed though I am not a believer myself.

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I have to agree. Even though I, too, am not a believer, I see nothing incompatible between the theory of evolution and traditional evangelical Christianity.

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"These monkeys are at once the ugliest and the most beautiful creatures on the planet./ And the monkeys don't want to be monkeys; they want to be something else./ But they're not."
-- Ernie Cline

Here are some statements by Darwin on theism, atheism, and the theory of evolution.

You might be interested in asking Admin for permission (here) to post on the Showcase thread Racist Darwin ? since one of the principal legs of Herepton's argument there is that Darwin was an atheist.TTFN,WK