The Contribution of the Discoveries and Theories of Charles Darwin in the Nineteenth Century to the Decline of Religious Belief in the Twentieth Centu

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

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species caused problems for the church; proposed that humans had evolved from lower forms of

Marilynne Robinson is a Pulitzer-winning novelist who has graced us with her essays found in The Death of Adam. Robinson gives the read the feeling of being much more educated than he or she really is. These essays provide readers with different ways of discussing history, religion and society. They, although difficult to comprehend at times, are flawlessly argued and, throughout, are grounded in universal human experience. When reading them, it is hard not to be persuaded, especially if reading them with an open mind.

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.

On April 7, 2017, a colloquium was given by Dr. Ted Davis from Messiah College. It covered the controversy surrounding religion and science during the 1920s. At the beginning of his presentation, he presented and handed out some interesting primary sources. These primary sources were pamphlets commonly used in the 1920s to promote scientific reasoning (mainly evolution) and were written by some influential scholars and preachers of the time. He briefly discussed the Scopes Trial, which is probably the most famous example of science vs religion here in the US, and used it as a jumping off point for the history leading up to this trial. From here he began to discuss how World War I had put a negative connotation on evolution due to the social

Although Darwin’s (1809-1882) work in evolutionary observation might appear radically different from those focused on other areas, the theories he developed from these observation lead to such groundbreaking publishing’s as The Origin of Species. These intern caused an upset within the then accepted norms of philosophy and religion, had a profound impact on the academia, and further

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, a scientific theory that supported the belief of evolution, was manipulated and applied to different areas of life, and thus it became the shaping force in European thought in the last half of the nineteenth century. Darwin, through observation of organisms, determined that a system of natural selection controlled the evolution of species. He found that the organisms that were most fit and assimilated to the environment would survive. They would also reproduce so that over time they would eventually dominate in numbers over the organisms with weaker characteristics. This new theory was radical and interesting to the scientific world but its effects reach far beyond this small institution of

When dwelling into the explorations about science and religion, one can find it quite amusing. "If science and religion are to continue to coexist it seems opposed to the conditions of modern thought to admit that this result can be brought about by the so-called

This shift, Petigny argues, it was not sudden and that it was instead an acceleration of tendencies initiated earlier: “Well before the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, the rise of science in general, and Darwinism in particular, posed a serious challenge to the intellectual and cultural dominance of traditional protestant belief.” In addition to this factor undermining conservative Protestantism, Petigny claims, that “the rise of the Social Gospel movement that had considerable influence before the

Darwin’s theories and discoveries caused much controversy to the world and still does today. These controversies occur more in

Since time immemorial man has always questioned the origins of life and himself . The answer to that question as there are three alternatives , namely the creation , transformation , or evolutionary biology .

To begin, the Victorian era had a lot of changes occurred such as technological and industrial improvements. People during that era who were educated or wealthy enough to spend extra time or money, grew to the fascination of the discoveries of science (Victorian Era). The shift onto science became very impactful to religion and became popular by Charles Darwin’s study of Darwinism. Science created a spiritual division amongst the people because it was beginning to challenge long-held beliefs about the origins of life and human progress. “Darwin's evolutionary ideas, published in 1859 as On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, rocked the religious foundations of Western society and thinking, altered the process of scientific discovery, and in fact colored every aspect of human life” (Ray). The divide between religion and science created doubt in the Christian faith in believers. Tennyson’s response to this division was this: “Let knowledge grow from more to more, but more of reverence in us dwell; That mind and soul, according well, may make one music as before,” (In Memoriam introduction. 6). Darwin’s theory of evolution, while universally accepted in scientific circles, remains controversial, particularly in relation to religious faiths that emphasize a spontaneously created universe (Charles Darwin Develops). Tennyson wants humanity to hold on to their beliefs despite all

The article, “A Matter of Scale,” urges the audience to observe the small and extraordinary components of the biosphere and acknowledge its genetic variations as explained by Darwin’s theory of evolution. However, Kelly’s essay, “Evolution: An Article of Faith,” considers Darwin’s theory as a “false religion” suppressing God’s ability to create the “work of intelligence.” (Evolution) The heated debate over the credibility of Darwin’s theory of evolution has led to the division of scientific and religious groups. Devoted, religious people discover two major flaws with Darwin’s theory of evolution regarding the inaccuracies of the fossil record and the contradicting phrase “survival of the fittest” that has passed on harmful mutations to next

   Imagine what would happen if everything you believed to be true was suddenly challenged.  How would you feel if the solid rock bottom of your religious and cultural beliefs turned into a slippery slope of doubt?  Such was the dilemma the Victorians faced with the publication of Darwin's Origin of the Species.

The 1859 publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species had dramatic consequences, among them the creation of doubt about God’s place in a world where species independently evolve and continually change. Darwin had not merely questioned God; he had shaken one of the core Christian beliefs: that God had created a flawless and unchanging earth. When Darwin’s ideas were not scientifically disproven, the basis of Christianity itself was called into question. That questioning continued as scientific discovery advanced. The traditional view and place of God became less and less applicable to modern life, triggering an onset of nihilism in many as the foundations of their lives were chipped away by scientific progress. Scholars and