Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Buddhist
Hurray! Hurray! It’s Darwin Day!

Hurray! Hurray! It’s Darwin Day!

Last updated on: February 12, 2018 at 12:03 pm by James Ford

Hurray! Hurray! It’s Darwin Day! 2018-02-12T12:03:40-08:00 James Ford

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Charles Darwin was born on this day in 1809.

Me, I mark it out as a time to pause and reflect on many things.

An interesting article at Wikipedia notes how his birthday has been observed as something special pretty much since his death in 1882. However in 1909 on the centenary of his birth a number of events marked the day out. These included a gathering of over four hundred scientists and others at Cambridge where papers were read. Also, another event was held at the American Museum of Natural History, which included the unveiling of a bronze bust of the master.

Throughout the twentieth century there were various events celebrating the man and his influence on biological science.

In 1980 Salem State College began a Darwin Festival, and in 1993 the Humanist Community of Palo Alto began to celebrate Darwin Day, and the same name was used for events in 1997 at the University of Tennessee. Not long after Darwin Day was celebrated at the University of Georgia. By 2001 Darwin Day had become widely observed.

Of course that word “holiday” is a contraction of holy day and it is hard to miss at least a hit of spiritual enthusiasm in the celebration of Darwin Day. Or, I find it so. And, at the very least, it gives me an excuse to ruminate on Darwin’s spiritual side.

Both sides of his family, the Darwins and the Wedgwoods were all Unitarian. Which makes me happy. Of course there were other strains of thought in the family. His renowned grandfather Erasmus was a notorious freethinker. As, it appears, was his father. And there were Anglicans in the mix, as well.

In fact Darwin was baptized Anglican. Although throughout his childhood he was taken to Unitarian services by his mother. And there was enough discomfort with orthodoxy that he first went to the University of Edinburg, a popular alternative to Oxbridge for nonconformists. However while he went there to study medicine, it was quickly obvious young Darwin had no passion for it. So, when he showed some interest in theology, his father, a practical man if also a freethinker, purchased a living for an Anglican priest at auction. And with that Charles was packed off to Cambridge to prepare for ordination.

But, again he proved fickle in his interests. Which appear to have been more focused on riding and shooting than reading. However, by the time he took his degree he had found his passion in natural sciences.

He would remain a nominal Anglican for the rest of his life. His passion for the natural sciences, however, would only deepen.

Spiritually Darwin moved from theism to deism, and it would seem he finally settled on agnosticism, the term coined by his associate and friend Thomas Huxley.

Louis Ruprecht, a religious studies scholar, and chair of the field at Georgia State University wrote a wonderful article, where he tells us:

“Darwin’s own faith journey was a complex one. His theories drew him ever further in the direction of biblical agnosticism. And while his God may have been a creator, the order this God created evolves in its own stop-start way, with unseemly amounts of violence. Cataclysm is the engine driving the evolutionary train. Earthquakes may make mountains, but they destroy a great deal of human and other habitation in so doing.

“It is thus telling that, when asked later in life about his most memorable life experiences, Darwin would recall climbing to the peak of the Andes… and then later supplemented that sublime memory with a trip to the Brazilian rain forest. What he felt there was reverent awe, wonderment, a simultaneous impression of nature’s fecundity and overarching embrace; an embrace in which we humans may well disappear.

“But unlike most contemporary evolutionary theorists who emphasize the random and accidental quality of genetic mutation, Darwin had the sense that natural selection was going somewhere, that it had a purpose. That purpose was the creation of a more beautiful natural order. Here is the rousing conclusion of his 1859 classic [On] The Origin of Species:

“[F]rom the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object of which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the creator into new forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. [italics Ruprecht’s]”

Certainly Darwin’s agnosticism, and Huxley’s has a fervency about it that I find compelling. Maybe even pointing to a living spirituality suitable for our faithless times…

In any case, a worthy moment to pause, and to consider one of the founders of modernity.

And, for me to wish you all a blessed Darwin’s day!

Darwin's spirituality

Previous Post

February 10, 2018

How To Spot Fake News: And, Why We're Probably Screwed

Next Post

February 13, 2018 Tevye's Many Hands: A Meditation on Zen & the Ways of Nondual Embodiment

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Christmas Carol Abolitionist African-American Ahmadiyya Alan Watts Aldous Huxley Allen Ginsberg Amedkar Jayanti American politics American Zen Anaheim Zen Sangha Anglican Annie Besant April Fool Armageddon Art and Religion artificial intellegence Atheist Awakening B R Ambedkar Barlaam & Josaphat Beatnik Between Bhagavad Gita Bible biography birthday bodhisattva Bodhisattva Precepts Book burning Book of Common Prayer Book of Mormon Brahmo Samaj Buddha Buddhism Buddhist Buddhist Lord's Prayer Butterflies Calendars cartoons cat ChatGPT Chicken Tortilla Soup choices Christian atheism Christian mysticism Christian origins Christian Science Christian Zen Christianity Christianity and Buddhism christmas Christmas Truce Christopher Isherwood Church of Later Day Saints Cinco de Mayo circus covenant critical thinking culture D. T. Suzuki Dalit Buddhism Daniel Defoe Desert Fathers and Mothers dharma talk Dogen Donald Trump Dongshan's Five Ranks Dorothy Day dream Duty Easter ecology Edwin Arnold emptiness Empty Moon Zen Network Episcopal Church Eternal Now Ethics evolution existentialism Faith fantasy Fathers Day film film review fire Five Ranks Folk music food Form and emptiness Four Seals Francis of Assisi Francis Xavier Free thinker friendship George MacDonald Gerald Heard Glenn Taylor Webb God Good Friday Gospel of Gospel of Mark Gospel of Thomas grace Graduate Theological Unioin Graduate Theological Union Guanyin H R Blyth Hakuin Ekaku Hanamatsuri Hanukkah Harada Yasutani Zen Heart Sutra Henry David Thoreau Hermann Hesse Hinduism History and Religion history of religion Holy Spirit home Hospitality Icon Ides of March Isaac Newton Islam Islamic mysticism Jack Kerouac James Luther Adams Jiddu Krishnamurti Joan of Arc Johannes Gutenberg John Donne joke Judaism justice karma kensho King James Bible koan Koun Yamada Kyoto School Lewis Carrol Liberal Christianity Liberal Religion Life Plan Community Liminal literature Literature and Religion Liturgy Lord's Prayer Love Mahatma Gandhi Mahayana Martin Luther King Jr Mary Baker Eddy Mary Magdelene Mary Oliver Mayflower Compact Meditation memories memory metaphor money money and religioin Mormons Mother's Day movie review mysticism mythic Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church New Thought Nichiren Buddhism Nonduality not knowing Omar Khayyam Pacific School of Religion pagan Palm Sunday Passover peace Pentecost perennialism Phantastes Philip Kapleau philosophy Pilgrimage poetry Poetry and Religion politics Prayer Precepts Printing Press prophecy prophetic spirituality psychology Pure Land Queer religion queering religion Quietism Ram Mohan Roy rebirth recipe Relationships and religion religion religion and history Religious syncretism Resistance Retirement Retreat review Rissho Kosei Kai Ritual Robert Aitken Roshi Robert Ingersoll Rohatsu Romani religion Rosie the Riveter saints samadhi SanboZen Sangha Satyagraha science science and reigion science and religion science fiction seminary sermon Sesshin Sex and Religion Shinran Sikh Sikh tradition silence Social Justice Socially Engaged Buddhism Society and religion Soto Zen soul spiritual community spiritual practice Spirituality Sufism Suicide superstition Taoism Television Teresa of Avila Thanksgiving theological schools Theosophy Thomas Merton Time Transcendentalism Transcendentalist Trinitarian Trinity Uncategorized unitarian Unitarian Christianity Unitarian Universalist Universalism Vajrayana Vedanta Walking war Willa Cather William Ellery Channing wisdom women and religion women in religion World Teacher Writing zazen Zen Zen Center Zen inspired retriement zen meditation Zen Precepts Zen women

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was thrown into a muddy cistern for prophesying Jerusalem's fall?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaiah Micah Jeremiah Baruch