God, Pain, and Charles Darwin

Some folks seem to have the notion that Charles Darwin applied science to his observations, leading to the publication of On the Origin of Species. That is not the case. He had ideas for which he wanted to find support. Interestingly, his writing was not intended as a way to kill God.

People have debated whether or not Darwin was an atheist throughout his life, and his writing may imply that he was unsure himself. Reading Origin one can see an unevenness, and maybe a vague defense of the Creator regarding pain.

I gave Charlie a floral wreath at PhotoFunia. 

His writings had many unsupported claims for which he promised to provide evidence — but never produced. At times he supported atheistic materialism, but other times, he knew that what is seen in the world must have been designed in some way. A benevolent Creator would not have used so much suffering, so natural selection — nature — is the culprit. The timing and conditions back then were right for Darwin to become an important figure.

In addition, Darwin and people of the time were using a common misconception about God in order to question or outright reject him: If he exists, why is there pain and suffering in the world? (Notice that people don't say that those things are evidence that there is a devil. Just a thought.) The growing apostasy of the time amplified this argument, and people seem to be moved by their feelings and opinions instead of investigating the righteousness of God and getting a bigger picture outside themselves. As for Darwin, he had all the evidence he needed, and he had some biblical training. Charles Darwin needed to repent.

The common perception of the effect of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species on the Victorian public has been that 19th-century readers felt their previously held convictions about a providential cosmos to have been rudely threatened by Darwin’s materialist ideas. The locus classicus for that interpretation was a famous 1888 bestseller on the subject of a clergyman’s loss of faith, Robert Elsmere, by Mrs. Humphry Ward (née Mary Arnold). Ever since the publication of Ward’s novel, much has been written on the subject of how the theodicean certainties of the many were disturbed by the promulgation of Darwinian theory.

The article featured here is written by a professing agnostic writing for an Intelligent Design site run by the Discovery Institute. I see some similarities between the author's spiritual position and that of Darwin. Please pray for the author, Neil Thomas, that he will admit to the truth and come to Christ. The rest of the article is found at "Darwin and the Problem of Pain."