LINGERING DOUBTS

famous book Origin of Species, published in the midnineteenth century, which sparked intense debate and criticism within religious circles, contains multiple references to a Creator. He concludes his book with the words: “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been evolved.” (The Origin of Species, pp. 528-529) Yet, the next generation of these scientists became either atheistic or, at the very least, skeptical of God. Why did this happen? After examining this, we conclude that the scientific theories developed by these scientists carried within them an inherent spirit that shaped the mindset of later generations. The way scientists approached the study of the universe suggested they intended to explain the cosmos without calling upon God. In other words, they were, at their core, secular thinkers. When we see acknowledgments of God in their statements or writings, it was not from clear, conscious awareness but rather because of the religious environment in which they were raised and the long history of Christianity they were part of. This environment naturally added certain influences to their thinking.