If he was a christian, why does he believe that humans were once apes? What does he really believe? Was he still a christian after he came up with his theory?
2007-03-20 19:59:43 · 17 answers · asked by <3N@T@LiE 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I have studied Darwin quite a bit. A few people here don't know anything.
Darwin was a Christian from the Church of England, but he always had skepticism. He could be best said to have been a moderate Christian. He was also a creationist. He went and came from the Galapagos Islands. He was still a creationist. After studying his observations for years, he came to reject creation for his new theory of evolution. He remained a moderate Christian until the death of his child. At that point, he became an agnostic. The meaning of agnostic at the time was that they didn't hold a belief in god, yet they did not assert that god doesn't exist because the possibility is still there. Today we would classify Darwin as an Atheist.
2007-03-20 23:12:56 · answer #1 · answered by Alucard 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
One more time - no one claims that humans were once apes.
In any case, Darwin was the son of a minister and trained in a similar manner. This naturally caused him some intellectual distress. Apparently, he became increasingly less religious over the course of his life, and rumors of a death-bed acceptance of god are based on the story of a money and publicity seeking woman and are contradicted by Darwin’s wife, daughter, and friends who were with him when he died (the woman who started the lie was not there).
2007-03-21 03:07:46 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
He wasn't religious at all, he believed in something called "The Theory of Evolution", which he wrote himself.
In this theory, he believed humans and apes were both related to the same primate. A bit like they shared a same ancestor, but evolved into several different species.
2007-03-21 03:04:47 · answer #3 · answered by jimi h-b 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He had to go to a theological university because most of the education at that time was heavily tied to Christianity. Darwin came to believe that we evolve only because of his intense observation of his surroundings and readings about the similarities between vertebrates in physiological structure, adaptation, behavior and evolutionary patterns
Without Darwin there would be no basis for modern biology in all fields. He has inspired molecular geneticists to find similar traits among other animal species and ourselves and he has laid the groundwork for modern zoology as we know it. Without his work, microbiology and its principles would never have existed !
2007-03-21 03:04:02 · answer #4 · answered by ibid 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, he was not religious. He started studies to become a priest or something like it but dropped out. The religions back then had so much control that any position at all required religious approval. the position hewas after would have given him steady income and enough free time to study nature.
He was an atheist in life and died as an atheist. Sorry.
His religion did not mean much to science and his science did not mean that much to religion. Many of the top scientific minds then were quite religious.
2007-03-21 03:08:19 · answer #5 · answered by U-98 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1) No.
2) He didn't believe humans were once apes.
3) N/A
2007-03-21 03:01:47 · answer #6 · answered by ZER0 C00L ••AM••VT•• 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Darwin was raised by his family in the Church of England. His father and grandfather were docotors and he initially attended a medical school. He didn't take well to it and his father then sent him to Divinity School at Cambridge where he again didn't distinguish himself.
The rest of your question about his Theory of the Origin of Species implies you don't understand it.
The best way to understand what he believed is to read his many books.
As to his religious beliefs, I find it hard to imagine that he did not at least participate in religion due to society at that time.
2007-03-21 03:19:15 · answer #7 · answered by Rainman 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
He began as a Christian but the evidence of evolution convinced him otherwise. The problem with Christianity is that it does not know God's method of creation and they are taking an allegorical story and translating it literally, which cannot be done. Or I should say, which should not be done.
2007-03-21 03:05:26 · answer #8 · answered by darkdiva 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
When he made the voyage on the Beagle he had just finished studying for the clergy, but later in life classified his personal beliefs as agnostic.
His concept was common descent.
2007-03-21 03:11:07 · answer #9 · answered by novangelis 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He was an absolute religious man, though not necessarily a Christian.
Why? Because he was trying to discover the truth.
It is another matter that the subject is, was and will always be, beyond the intellectual grasp of a man. So his theory failed.
2007-03-21 04:30:04 · answer #10 · answered by Vijay D 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋