What did Darwin really believe about God? the Christian revelation? the implications of his theory of evolution for religious faith? These questions were asked again and again in the years following the publication of (1859). They are still asked today by scholars, scientists, students, and religious believers. The questions have taken on a new relevance in light of controversies over the teaching of evolution and intelligent design in schools, the resurgence of fundamentalism as a political force, and the combative rhetoric of crusading secularists, many of whom take Darwin as an icon.
But Darwin was very reticent about his personal beliefs, and reluctant to pronounce on matters of belief for others. His published writings are particularly reserved or altogether silent on religion. His contains a short discussion of his religious views, presented as a gradual migration from Anglican Christianity to agnosticism. But this was written toward the end of his life, and intended for the highly select audience of his family and immediate social circle (see Barlow ed. 1958, preface). It should not therefore be read (although it often is), as a neutral account of the development of his thought, or of his innermost beliefs and feelings. A far more revealing source is his correspondence.
Letters became an important medium through which Darwin’s readers sought to draw him out on matters of personal belief, and to explore the religious implications of his work. Letters written to Darwin by persons unknown to him became more frequent from the late 1860s onward, as his international fame grew. Young naturalists, sceptical writers, clergymen, and educators wrote to him about his religious views, often seeking direction for their own.
In December 1866 Darwin received a letter from Mary Boole, a spiritualist writer who was supporting her five daughters as a librarian after her husband, the mathematician George Boole, died in 1864.
Mary Boole’s letter
Dear Sir
Will you excuse my venturing to ask you a question to which no one’s answer but your own would be quite satisfactory…
Do you consider the holding of your Theory of Natural Selection to be inconsistent … with the following belief:
That God is a personal and Infinitely good Being …
That the effect of the action of the Spirit of God on the brain of man is especially a moral effect.
My own impression has always been … that you had supplied one of the missing links, —-not to say the missing link, —-between the facts of Science & the promises of religion.
The British naturalist Charles Darwin had correspondence with numerous other luminaries of his age and members of his family. These have provided many insights about the nineteenth century, from scientific exploration and travel to religious debate and discussion...
