Charles Darwin, a 19th century British self-taught geologist and writer.
He attended a course in theology at Christ’s College, Cambridge. Darwin
wrote in two places in his book Life and Letters about his personal
faith: “The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us;
and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic.” “I think an
Agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind. The
whole subject [of God] is beyond the scope of man’s intellect.”
1
Darwin is pictured above, showing him not long after
he published
On the Origin of the Species in 1859 at the age of
51 years. Darwin achieved great fame and notoriety with this
publication, even in his own generation, and is now viewed with such esteem
by his loyal followers as one might revere a god. In 2009, his
devotees celebrated the 150th birthday of this seminal publication, and
bestowed great honor on their hero. The publication
of
On the Origin of the Species fundamentally changed civilization,
and opened a wide gait for a broad-based attack on Christianity, and for
that matter, on all religions. This publication is available to
read on-line and without charge
2.
Darwin's Theory of Evolution basically said that all species of life
evolved over very long periods of time from common ancestors through a
process he called Natural Selection
3. He critically
evaluated his own conclusions, and recognized four areas of difficulty for his theory .
These, in his own words, are as follows:
- "Why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly
fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional
forms? Why is not all nature in confusion instead of the species being,
as we see them, well defined."
- "Is it possible that an animal having, for instance, the structure
and habits of a bat, could have been formed by the modification of some
animal with wholly different habits? Can we believe that natural
selection could produce, on the one hand, organs of trifling importance,
such as the tail of a giraffe, which serves as a fly-flapper, and, on
the other hand, organs of such wonderful structure, as the eye, of which
we hardly as yet fully understand the inimitable perfection?"
- "Can instincts be acquired and modified through natural selection?
What shall we say to so marvellous an instinct as that which leads the
bee to make cells, which have practically anticipated the discoveries of
profound mathematicians?"
- "How can we account for species, when crossed, being sterile and
producing sterile offspring, whereas, when varieties are crossed, their
fertility is unimpaired?"4
I am amazed that Darwin was so honest and open about the potential
weaknesses in his theory. I have never read or hear of a present day evolutionist
who would admit to any
weakness in the theory of evolution. Apparently, the neo-Darwinists of today
are
unlike their founder and hero.
