Darwin, Charles Robert

(1809–82)

   Scientist.

   Darwin was educated at the University of Cambridge. In 1859 he published his Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. In this he argued that the earth’s species were not created in their present form, but had evolved very slowly through the ages as the result of natural selection. Subsequently in 1871 he published The Descent of Man. The Origin of Species, coupled with lyell’s geological discoveries of the same period, caused a sensation in the Victorian Church. Not only did the theory contradict the biblical account of creation as found in the Book of Genesis, but it also implied that the world was not guided by a benevolent deity, but rather by an impersonal force ensuring the survival of the fittest. In addition, human beings could no longer be thought to be the result of a special, spiritual creation, but instead must be seen as part of the natural world. Christians have had different reactions to the insights of Darwinism. Many have assimilated the theory of evolution into their world view and understand the Genesis account as a spiritual myth; others, however, have denied the findings of the biologists and geologists and have stoutly continued to teach and believe in ‘creation science’. Darwin himself was agnostic in his religious beliefs.

   Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (1859) [many editions];

   N. Barlow (ed.), Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle (1945);

   G. Himmelfarb, Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (1959);

   W. Irvine, Apes, Angels and the Victorians (1956);

   J.R. Moore, The Post Darwinian Controversies (1979).