The Contribution of the Discoveries and Theories of Charles Darwin in the Nineteenth Century to the Decline of Religious Belief in the Twentieth Century
In Victorian England, people wanted answers. Explanations for unusual
natural events were becoming unbelievable in an increasingly educated
time, and these religious and supernatural explanations were doubted
by many. People needed a sensible explanation for life and mans'
existence. Charles Darwin provided a possible answer, and man was no
longer an 'Adam' created in God's image, but descended from a simple
single celled organism. But was Darwin responsible for the transition
into a more atheistic society? Many would argue he was the main player
in undermining the authority of religion.
In November 1859, Charles Darwin's most famous work, 'Origin of the
Species' was published. It detailed his theory of evolution. This
theory was based on natural selection which is survival of the
fittest. The process of evolution is all about creatures with a slight
difference to other creatures surviving better. For example, if an
animal is born with a longer neck it may be more able to reach food
higher up, and thus has a better chance of survival. More of these
animals with longer necks breed, and the creature evolves.
While navigating the seas on the HMS Beagle, Darwin visited the
Galapagos Islands which are off the coast of Ecuador. While he was
there, observing the wildlife of the islands, he noticed some things
about the wildlife. He saw two birds that looked identical, trying to
eat some nuts. One of the birds could easily crack the nuts with its
large powerful beak, whereas the other bird di...
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...ot provide any arguments with as much strength and
support as the Darwinians, as the supporters liked to be called. The
bible was becoming thought of in a less strict way and more as a book
of metaphors and allegories and stories with a moral and ethical
message. In 1896, Frederick Temple became appointed Archbishop of
Canterbury. Temple was a well known believer of evolution, and wrote
texts explaining Christianity in evolutionary terms. The church was
becoming subject to ever more challenges to its infallibility, and
fundamental religious beliefs were being reviewed and considered by
more people.
I think that Darwin's beliefs and convictions opened the door to
peoples minds and allowed them to think outside of the religious cage
they were trapped in. As more supporters of evolution went public,
people felt less
Loewenberg, Bert J. "The Reaction of American Scientists to Darwinism." American Historical Review. 38 (1933): 687-701.
The 1920’s were a time of change. New ideas were becoming more readily experimented with and even accepted by large portions of the population. Some of these included jazz music and the fight against the alcoholic prohibition. The radical idea I will focus on in this paper, however, is Evolution. It is a theory that had been around for over half a century before the 20’s but had only more recently caught on in the US. It contradicted the Christian theory of Divine Creation as described in the Bible. This caused many religious fundamentalists to fight against it. They took their battle to the law books, and they were challenged by pro-evolution modernists in the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925.
The “Roaring Twenties” was a time period known for its innovation. Skirts got shorter, teens got bolder, and Prohibition was in full swing. These changes also gave way to a time period full of religious conflict. “In [religious] minds, Prohibition had always been about more than alcohol. It represented an effort to defend traditional American values against the growing influence of an urban, cosmopolitan culture” (Gillon 152). Charles Darwin had published his book, The Evolution of Species, in 1859 and The Descent of Man in 1871, detailing the evolution of man from ape-like creatures. When A Civic Biology, a biology textbook containing information on evolution, was published in 1914, teachers around the country began using it in their courses. By the twenties, these books had sparked all sorts of new ideas regarding the origin of man as well as opposition due to the creature from which he claimed we evolved and to the disagr...
...tarted rationalizing their emotions, the clarity of evolution dawned upon their eyes, and of acceptance of new foreign ideas. Here was a thing that not only could explain the mysteries of life, but also serve as testimonial to the foolishness of pride. Evolution was a hallmark in the relations between science and religion, as the two sides realized neither was trying to undermine the other, and even in some cases joined in union to promote humanities advancement. The story of evolution is significant to history not only because of its scientific achievements, but also the gap it bridged between the scientific and religious community, and the lesson it taught that acceptance of new ideas does not have to mean the end of prior beliefs altogether. No other scientific revolution has generated as much human controversy and unity as Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
In Charles Darwin’s life he had helped make a significant advancement in the way mankind viewed the world. With his observations, he played a part in shifting the model of evolution into his peers’ minds. Darwin’s theory on natural selection impacted the areas of science and religion because it questioned and challenged the Bible; and anything that challenged the Bible in Darwin’s era was sure to create contention with the church. Members of the Church took offense to Darwin’s Origins of Species because it unswervingly contradicted the teachings of the book of Genesis in the Bible. (Zhao, 2009) Natural selection changed the way people thought. Where the Bible teaches that “all organisms have been in an unchanging state since the great flood, and that everything twas molded in God’s will.” (Zhao, 2009) Darwin’s geological journey to the Galapagos Islands is where he was first able to get the observations he needed to prove how various species change over t...
Wallace and Darwin grew up on opposite sides of the track. Wallace's youth was spent amongst the abject poverty of the rural Welsh. These were the people furnishing the likes of Darwin (a Cambridge graduate, and the son of a doctor,) with taxes and tithings whilst they could barely put food on their own table. This gave rise to Wallace's socialist political values. It also influenced his attitude towards science. "This land (Wales,) equipped Wallace with the basic skills of insights he would need for a career in science." (A103 TV16"Wallace in Wales.")
...role for God in the universe, which directly undermined the teachings of the Church. Unlike the religious certainty of the past, more people began to feel uneasy about religion and would even leave the Church in order to pursue their new theories of Evolution over Creationism after the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859). Introducing the theory that the beginning of the world was a result of Evolution and natural selection, Darwin’s discoveries caused people to reevaluate their beliefs about the Bible and Creation stories. While some took Darwin’s ideas radically, some incorporated these new ideas into their faith mindset while others remained confused about what they should believe. Seeing science as a main reason for the loss of faith in the Victorian Era, a problem that Arnold was very concerned about, he became very weary and critical about science.
The difficulty that many Christians faced throughout the 19th century was the challenge to believe the theory of evolution. The development in science brought many questions to the status of man. Sir Arthur Keith said “... the conclusion that I have come to is this: the law of Christ is incompatible with t...
Charles Darwin, born in 1809, was raised by his two Christian parents. Naturally, young Charles openly embraced the ideas of Christianity, and adopted many religious practices into his own life. By the 1830’s, Darwin had developed a strong desire to study natural history and natural theology, or anything that related to divine design in nature. In 1831, Darwin was invited on a trip of his lifetime: to sail around the world studying Mother Nature’s different types of life. At 22 years of age, thus began Darwin’s 5-year long voyage on the vessel HMS Beagle with his fellow scientific scholars.
Boyer, Pascal. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2001.
Anyone with even a moderate background in science has heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwin’s ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwin’s book remains one of the most influential ever written.
Barbour, Ian G. Religion in an Age of Science. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990. Print. (BL 240.2 .B368 1990)
The impact these men had on religious thought was tremendous. Some of them are the starting points for many of the controversies existing today. Of all the scientists, historians, and philosophers in the nineteenth century, the most influential and controversial was Charles Darwin. Born in 1809, Charles Darwin always had an interest in the nature, so he chose to study botany in college. His strengths in botany led him to become the naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle. On a trip to South America, he and the rest of the crew visited the near by Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was there he noticed many different variations of the same general plants and birdshe saw previously in South America. He also observed ancient fossils of extinct organisms that closely resembled modern organisms. By 1859, all of these observations inspired him to write down his theories. He wanted to explain how evolution had occurred through a process called natural selection. In his published work, On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, or On the Origin of Species for short, Darwin stated that, "new species have come on the stage slowly and at successive intervals."(1) He also said, "old forms are supplanted by new and improved forms," and all organisms play a part in the "struggle for life.
Also in the Victorian Period, other events were going on that changed the way many people thought about life. Among those changes were advances in scientific research, which created conflict with biblical beliefs. With Darwin’s contribution of The Origin of the Species in 1859, which set off a scientific revolution, many Victorians lost faith in the church. His theories stirred doubt about where humanity really started from, and the...
Over the course of the years, society has been reformed by new ideas of science. We learn more and more about global warming, outer space, and technology. However, this pattern of gaining knowledge did not pick up significantly until the Scientific Revolution. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the Scientific Revolution started, which concerned the fields of astronomy, mechanics, and medicine. These new scientists used math and observations strongly contradicting religious thought at the time, which was dependent on the Aristotelian-Ptolemy theory. However, astronomers like Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton accepted the heliocentric theory. Astronomical findings of the Scientific Revolution disproved the fact that humans were the center of everything, ultimately causing people to question theology’s role in science and sparking the idea that people were capable of reasoning for themselves.