Darwin om kristendomen

Den unge Darwin var kreationist. Präststudent. Läste grekiska, översatte Bibeln, gick dagligen i kyrkan. Successivt övergav han sin kristna tro – dess helveteslära var honom motbjudande. Ondska och lidande fanns det också för mycket av det. Så här skrev Darwin till sin troende vän Asa Gray i USA. Genom åren brevväxlade de om mycket, bl a tro och vetande. En hund, skrev Darwin, kan lika gärna fundera över Newton som en människa över Gud.

With respect to the theological view of the question; this is always painful to me.— I am bewildered.— I had no intention to write atheistically.

But I own that I cannot see, as plainly as others do, & as I shd wish to do, evidence of design & beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world.

I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent & omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidæ with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice.

Not believing this, I see no necessity in the belief that the eye was expressly designed. On the other hand I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe & especially the nature of man, & to conclude that everything is the result of brute force.

I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance.

Not that this notion at all satisfies me. I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton.— Let each man hope & believe what he can.—