Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was a famous naturalist born in England to a Christian family on February 12, 1809. He is best known for the theory of evolution, which suggest that biological species develop over time via natural selection, branching from common origins. Outside of evolution in particular, he was regarded as an expert on barnacles as well as credited with discovering how coral atolls were formed.
Early Career
Darwin was originally in training for the clergy, but in doing so became the protege of the Reverend John Stevens Henslow, a professor of botany, and the Reverend Adam Sedgwick, a geologist. Henslow and Sedgwick spurred Darwin to pursue his interests as a naturalist.
After touring the Galapagos Islands and studying the animals that lived there, Darwin developed an interest in the patterns of species distribution he had documented on the journey, as well as his realization that the economic theories of Thomas Malthus might have some application in the biological world. Researching this issue on a global scale, he slowly developed his theory of natural selection and finally published The Origin of Species in 1859. Darwin had not originally meant to publish his work so early in his life, and in fact was quite fearful of what the reception might be, but was prompted to do so after being contacted by another naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, who had developed similar ideas.
Religious Beliefs
Charles Darwin was a Christian and a Creationist up and through his famous five year voyage on the HMS Beagle. But in the ensuing two years after returning to England (1836 to 1839) at the age of twenty-seven, Darwin abandoned Christianity (1) and "had become a 'materialist' (more or less equivalent to an atheist" (2). "In order not to hurt the feelings of his friends and wife, Darwin often used deistic language in his publications" (3). According to Darwin, the "manifestly false history of the world" (4) as recorded in the Old Testament and New Testament miracles led him to reject Biblical veracity (5). Eminent Darwin biographer, Professor Janet Browne, sums up Darwin's views concerning religion: Darwin "mapped out a comparitive evolution of the religious sense, proposing that religious belief was ultimately nothing more than a primitive urge to bestow a cause on otherwise inexplicable natural events...In short, he made no secret of his view that he did not believe religion to have any rational foundation at all" (6). Yet, in spite of these views, when he died in 1882 at the age of 73, Darwin was buried at Westminster Abbey next to Sir Isaac Newton.
References
1. Mayr, Ernst Growth of Biological Thought (1982:402).
2. Mayr, Ernst One Long Argument (1991:75).
3. Ibid. (1991:75).
4. Barlow, Nora (editor) The Autobiography of Charles Darin (1958:85).
5. Ibid. (1958:85-87).
6. Browne, Janet Darwin The Power of Place (2002:341)