Darwin's doubts revealed in his letters to friends
Intelligent design? I cannot believe in it, wrote scientist to Christian correspondents
Sunday, 8 April 2007
Print
Email
As he crafted his seminal work, On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin crossed intellects with some of the finest minds of his age, testing and refining a theory that would change the very nature of mankind's view of itself.
Now, previously unpublished letters reveal the thinking behind the book that unleashed a scientific and religious furore in the 19th century.
The correspondence with Darwin's friend and theological sparring partner Asa Gray, an American botanist and God-fearing Christian, spans decades, beginning in 1854, five years before the publication of Origin, and continuing until Darwin's death in 1882.
Despite Gray's committed Christianity, he went on to become Darwin's greatest champion in the US, where ideas about so-called intelligent design have re-ignited the debate about creationism.
Darwin himself had a trying relationship with God. Though he was a firm believer in his early years, his theories forced him to question his faith and any commitment to Christianity that remained was extinguished with the death of his daughter in 1851. In one letter to another correspondent, Charles Lyell, he made his position clear: "Many persons seem to make themselves quite easy about immortality & the existence of a personal God by intuition; & I suppose that I must differ from such persons, for I do not feel any innate conviction on any such points."
The relationship between Darwin and Gray was good natured, if combative. In one letter, Darwin tells Gray: "An innocent and good man stands under a tree and is killed by a flash of lightning. Do you believe that God designedly killed this man? Many or most persons do believe this. I can't and don't."
Gray responds: "You reject the idea of design, while all the while bringing out the neatest illustrations of it!" Darwin, rather self-conscious of his large nose, writes: "Will you honestly tell me that the shape of my nose was ordained and guided by an intelligent cause?"
The letters have been re-cast into a play, Re:Design, intended to bring Darwin's work to a new audience.
The source material is also being published online by scholars who are opening up the archive at Cambridge University Library, which holds the world's largest collection of Darwin's papers.
Dr Alison Pearn, assistant director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, said: "There is a great deal of subtlety about Darwin's thinking on religion. Like most people, he didn't necessarily think the same thing at all times. He was prepared to say things in correspondence that he wouldn't say in print. So there is immense value in making the complete texts available."
As well as intellectual ideas, the two men discuss matters such as the American Civil War, and how to annoy their wives by beating them at backgammon.
The play, which was written by Craig Baxter, who has worked on a number of BBC Radio 4 dramas, is soon to tour theatres nationwide.
Darwin, who was born in Shrewsbury in 1809, developed his ideas about the "transmutation" of species after his five-year voyage as a geologist on HMS Beagle, which eventually evolved into his theory of natural selection. Such talk was viewed as heresy by his contemporaries who felt it undermined their convictions on divine creation.
The online archive tackling his difficult relationship with religion features some 5,000 letters.
Dr Paul White of the Darwin Correspondence Project said: "The letters reveal that debate over design engaged a wide range of participants, and in a manner that was both frank and respectful of differences in religious belief. In contrast to much of the current debate, Darwin and his circle of correspondents seem more tolerant and more humble."
