“After Annie’s death, Charles set the Christian faith firmly behind him,” writes Randal Keynes, a great, great grandson of Charles Darwin in a biography of Darwin entitled Annie’s Box. Annie was Darwin’s favourite daughter and Keynes’ book, which focuses on Darwin’s family life, was reviewed in Science, vol 296, p1974, 14 Jun 2002. The reviewer states, “Freed from the last vestige of belief that the world was perfect because God created it that way, Darwin continued without spiritual restraint to work out his theory on the origin of species.”
Editorial Comment: Since Keynes’ book was published many people have come to believe that grief over his daughter’s death gave Darwin the impetus to publish his inherently anti-God theory. However, the real turning point in Darwin’s life was some 20 years earlier when he adopted Lyell’s Moses-free geology. His grief over his daughter’s death was just one more step on an already well established path away from God.
Keynes’ book was the inspiration of the 2009 biographical film with the completely misleading name of Creation. The film is actually one of numerous promotions released during the Darwin anniversary year designed to make people feel good about Darwin as a person, and therefore, good about his theory.
Darwin’s academic loss of faith in a good God because he saw a good God as incompatible with an evil world, reveals the essential flaw in all compromise creation positions that refuse to take Genesis as serious history (i.e. theistic evolution, framework theory and “intelligent design”). These beliefs may superficially explain creative design, but they do not explain why the world is full of things that are not good, such as disease and death. There is a significant difference between something that doesn’t function well because it was made by an evil or incompetent creator, and something that functions badly because it was corrupted after it was give into man’s control. Only Genesis gives a clear, consistent explanation of why the world is tainted by evil (man sinned), yet shows the vestiges of perfect design that are beyond chance. It also provides the background as to why Christ the Creator is the only one who can save us from the eternal penalty of our sin. (Ref. Darwin, evolution, death)
Evidence News, 16 December 2009