Darwin's Debt to Christianity

If I might step in,Evolution as a whole is not random, although it contains random elements.Mutation is random, although it operates within non-random physical laws.Natural selection is very far from random. It is a continuing process where the successful survive and the unsuccessful disappear.Going back to the topic at hand, I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish here. It seems clear that Darwin's primary influence when developing his theory was the natural world that he studied on the Beagle voyage. Secondarily, he would have been influenced by the biologists who had gone before him, like Lamarck and Saint-Hilaire, as well as other thinkers and scientists, such as the geologist Charles Lyell. Compared to these factors, any influence that Darwin may have taken from the Bible pales into insignificance.Even if we were to say that Darwin was influenced by Christianity, where does that get us? It would have been unthinkable for a man of Darwin's social class and education, living in England at that time, to have been unfamiliar with the Bible. It was omnipresent. The idea that Darwin's having been influenced by the Bible affects the credence accorded to evolution or the Bible itself, seems faintly absurd.

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Mutate and Survive

Hi no1nose,I have been following this thread, since it is an interesting idea, but I am still none the wiser as to your intentions in drawing these parallels. Drawing a poetic comparison between Darwinism and Christianity after the fact is all very well, but it does not demonstrate a causal relationship. Even if it did, and we were all in agreement that Darwin had been significantly influenced by Christianity, what would that prove?Added by Edit; By the way, if you use the little "reply" button in the bottom right hand corner of each post;

you can reply directly to that message. This makes it a lot easier to follow the conversation and helps avoid mix-ups about who is talking to who. Also, some members are also set up to receive email notifications when they get a reply.Edited by Granny Magda, : No reason given.

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Mutate and Survive