Darwin and Faith

Although folks like Richard Dawkins boldly contend that Charles Darwin made it possible for him and others to be atheists, Darwin himself was not of the same mind. Although his faith in God waxed and waned over the course of his life, eventuating in a state of agnosticism, he never claimed to be an atheist. He considered the idea of a first cause to be possible, but ultimately when it came to ultimate origins he remained agnostic. Consider this statement from his autobiography:

Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason, and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist. This conclusion was strong in my mind about the time, as far as I can remember, when I wrote the 'Origin of Species;' and it is since that time that it has very gradually, with many fluctuations, become weaker. But then arises the doubt;-- can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe, been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animals, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions? May not these be the result of the connection between cause and effect which strikes us as a necessary one, but probably depends merely on inherited experience? Nor must we overlook the probability of the constant inculcation in a belief in God on the minds of children producing so strong and perhaps an inherited effect on their brains not fully developed, that it would be as difficult for them to throw off their belief in God, as for the monkey to throw off its instinctive fear and hatred of a snake.

I cannot pretend to throw the least light on such abstruse problems. The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic.

Karl Giberson in his book Saving Darwin (Harper One, 2008), which I'm just now getting started reading makes the point that Darwin was always cautious about religion. Indeed, Giberson contends that it wasn't science that challenged his faith, but rather the presence of suffering in the world and the loss of his beloved daughter that caused him the greatest distress. At the time of his writing the Origins of the Species (publ. 1859), he was at most a Deist. As Giberson notes, what bothered Darwin the most about Christianity, was the same kind of ideas that bother many of us who remain firmly in the faith. He had great difficulty with the idea of hell -- in which he could find no redeeming quality. In that I agree, and for that reason, have abandoned it. He wrestled with the reality of life and the doctrine of a loving God, but again these are not science questions their life questions that we all wrestle with. Yes, the theory of evolution counters the idea of design, but that doesn't mean that God is not a reality.

Giberson writes:

In the final analysis, one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, the architect of the worldview that countless Christians believe was inspired by Satan to destroy their faith, the thinker who did more than anyone to drive natural theology from intellectual discourse, lost his faith when his daughter died. Darwin's belief in God weathered the theological storms brought on by the Icheumonidae, the sadistic cats, and the webbed feet of the upland geese. He understood those features of the natural world could be reconciled with belief in God as creator. He is followed in this belief by the majority of theologians who have reflected on these problems and concluded that evolution by natural selection is not incompatible with belief in God as creator. (Giberson, Saving Darwin, p. 40).

His confidence in God was shattered, but one cannot say that his faith in God completely died. There is no evidence that he ever embraced atheism. He continued to support the church financially, though he did not attend services.

Yes, Darwin presents challenges to faith, but as Darwin himself understood, there is much we don't understand. And thus, we must remain humble before the creation.