Good morning. I live just down the lane from Walton Hall, the home of the 19th century naturalist and explorer, Charles Waterton. He had several visits from Charles
Darwin, following his epic voyage on the Beagle and whist he was writing his book “On The Origin of Species” whose theory of evolution was to rock the worlds of
science and religion. The two men had much in common when it came to science, but not when it came to religion. Waterton was a devout Roman Catholic, Darwin, it was thought was an agnostic. There were good reason for believing this for late in his life he wrote to a prominent atheist who was perhaps seeking his support, “It has
always been my object to avoid writing on religion, and I have confined myself to science.”
But as many of us learned this week that wasn’t to remain strictly true. On Monday afternoon in New York, a brief letter hand written by Darwin was auctioned for
almost 200 thousand dollars. It was penned just a month after his letter to the atheist, but was sharper in tone and content. It was sent to a young barrister, who was
obviously a keen Christian and was worried that if he derived pleasure in reading Darwin’s books he might lose his faith. He’d written, “I ask you to give a ‘yes’
or ‘no’ answer to the question ‘Do you believe in the New Testament?” Darwin replied, “Dear Sir, I am sorry to have to inform you that I do not believe in the
Bible as a divine revelation and therefore not in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Yours faithfully”.
Why did the young barrister’s letter so get under Darwin’s skin that he broke with a life-time of reticence on matters of religion? We will probably never know, but
clues can perhaps be found in other letters which he wrote. When he and his wife Emma settled in Down in Kent Darwin correspondence shows that he made great friends with the local vicar and Darwin would do everything to support his local church except worship there. He would accompany his wife and family to the church gates, and then go for a thoughtful walk whilst they went to worship. But with the vicar he planned an educational and benevolent trust for the parish and became its very active treasurer.
Then the vicar left and a keen new curate arrived, who was a far more yes, or no, person. The curate made local life so difficult for Darwin that he withdrew from the
educational and care structure which he’d created.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the letter from the enthusiastic Christian lawyer reminded Darwin of his treatment by the Christian curate some years earlier and he took to his pen. The press have interpreted the letter as evidence of Darwin’s atheism, but I don’t necessarily think that that’s the case. What Darwin certainly didn’t believe was that a loving God would allow non-believers to burn eternally in hell fire. I agree with him.