God, Darwin, and other things

NS: Can you love god and agree with Darwin?

A.N. Wilson: I think you can love God and agree with the author of The Voyage of the Beagle, the Earth Worm, and most of the Origin of Species. The Descent of Man, with its talk of savages, its belief that black people are more primitive than white people, and much nonsense besides, is an offence to the intelligence - and is obviously incompatible with Christianity. I think the jury is out about whether the theory of Natural selection, as defined by neo-Darwinians is true, and whether serious scientific doubts, as expressed in a new book Why Us by James Lefanu, deserve to be taken seriously. For example, does the discovery of the complex structure of DNA and the growth in knowledge in genetics require a rethink of Darwinian "gradualism". But these are scientific rather than religious questions.

from New Statesman interview with A N Wilson on his return to faith - read the rest here

Comments

[Lisa Watkinson]

Maggi, am I right in believing that Darwin came to Faith on hid deathbed and recounted his belief that we desended from apes.

I have just started to get the Newstatesman,liking it so far.

[Paul]

Hi Lisa. The story of Darwin's 'deathbed conversion' has done the rounds over the years, but as I understand it it's very much discredited now. Even some of the higher-profile Creationist websites have pages 'debunking' the story. If you're interested, try Googling for 'Darwin deathbed conversion' or similar and you should find links from a variety of sources.