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Follow the journey of Charles Darwin from a devout believer to a staunch atheist, influenced by his studies, experiences, and personal tragedies, leading to his rejection of religious beliefs.
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Psa. 46:10, “Be still, and knowthatIamGod: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”
"I often had to run very quickly to be on time, and from being a fleet runner was generally successful; but when in doubt I prayed earnestly to God to help me, and I well remember that I attributed my success to the prayers and not to my quick running, and marvelled how generally I was aided."
Darwin would attend Christ’s College. He had a non-conformist Unitarian background, but attended a Church of England school. With the aim of becoming a clergyman he went to the University of Cambridge for the required BA degree, which included studies of Anglican theology.
"I liked the thought of being a country clergyman. Accordingly I read with care Pearson on the Creed and a few other books on divinity; and as I did not then in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible, I soon persuaded myself that our Creed must be fully accepted."
While at Christ college, Darwin was an admirer of William Paley. He argued for the existence of God from design. (The watch must have a watchmaker). • Darwin writes, “I could have written out the whole of the ‘Evidences’ with perfect correctness, but not of course in the clear language of Paley,” and, “I do not think I hardly ever admired a book more than Paley's ‘Natural Theology.’ I could almost formerly have said it by heart.”
I propose that three things led to Darwin’s apostasy. • First, the influence of his Grandfather • Erasmus Darwin, Charles's grandfather, was a physician, poet and biologist. He studied medicine at the University of Cambridge, took additional courses at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and then set up a successful medical practice in Lichfield. Later in life he wrote a poem entitled Zoonomia, which included a long section on evolution.
2) Charles Lyell • the newly published first volume of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology (the second volume, published after the Beagle left England, was sent on to Darwin in Montevideo). This was a revolutionary book for that time. It subtly ridiculed belief in recent creation in favor of an old Earth, and denied that Noah's Flood was world-wide; this, of course, was also a denial of divine judgment.
3) Death & Suffering • The common thread throughout Darwin’s life was his continual struggle with the issue of death and suffering. He was never able to reconcile the existence of death, disease, and struggle with the character of a loving God.
HIS FAILURE • Death came because of sin, not by the grace of God. • Gen. 2:16, 17, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Gen. 3:4, “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.” • Eve listened to Satan, Charles listened to Charles Lyell, and his grandfather.
I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae (parasitoid wasp) with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice (Francis Darwin, ed., The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Vol. II (New York: Appleton, 1897), p. 105.)
In 1851 His Daughter Dies • Annie’s cruel death destroyed Charles’s tatters of beliefs in a moral, just universe. Later he would say that this period chimed the final death-knell for his Christianity . . . . Charles now took his stand as an unbeliever (Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist (New York: W.W. Norton& Company, 1991), p. 387.
The Old Testament • “I had gradually come by this time, [i.e. 1836 to 1839] to see that the Old Testament was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos or the beliefs of any barbarian.”
Denied the Miracles • “The more we know of the fixed laws of nature, the more incredible do miracles become.” • “The Gospels cannot be proved to have been written simultaneously with the events.” • “By such reflections as these… I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation.”
Denied Eternal Damnation • “I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so, the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother, and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.”
It would be safe to say that Charles Darwin found out the truth about eternal damnation! • Rev. 20:10, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lakeoffire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
1. Man Brought About Pain & Suffering • Pain and suffering came about because man chose sin over purity. • Rom. 8:18, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
2) Miracles Were Witnessed • John 6:2, “And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.” • John 11:47, “Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.”
John 12:37, “But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him.”
“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease.
He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3).
3) The Accuracy of the Word of God • Throughout the centuries, the Bible remains unruffled by the ambush of skeptics. • While their bones rot in the ground, the Bible remains the connection between God and man!
“The self-authenticating Word of God is not subject to any higher authority. We do not use external sources to confirm the accuracy of the Bible; instead, we use the Bible to confirm the accuracy of external sources. The self-sustaining power of God’s Word makes it impervious to skeptical arguments; it breaks down unbelief before apologetic questions have even been answered.
Despite their protests and denials, people intuitively recognize God’s voice when they hear it. Even when the preacher’s arguments stumble, God’s Word still breaks through to the coldest heart.” (David Vallance)
2 Pet. 1:21, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
Evolution is the only theory that has been accepted as fact by many in the scientific community. Yet, it has never bridged any further than the hypothesis. • 1 Tim. 6:20, “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.”
Accept These Facts • (1)Charles Darwin is buried, but where is the body of Jesus? Charles remains are located in the north aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey, not far from Sir Isaac Newton. • (2) The Bible is still the number one best seller in the world. “Heavenandearth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (Matt. 24:35).
(3) The missing link is still missing, and it will always be missing! Charles Darwin knew that the future of his theory rested in paleontology. The hope that fossils would be found to prove evolution.
(4)Charles Darwin is no longer an ATHEIST! • Phil. 2:9-11, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
