darwinMany of us often hear religious people claiming that even Charles Darwin himself accepted God in his dying days (these same people often also claim that Albert Einstein was a religious man). Both have been refuted many times.
I would like to see the definite answer about the origin of this claim and some quotes that negate (or prove) it.
Stephen Jay Gould's website has a quote from Charles Darwin's son that holds that the legend of the deathbed conversion simply isn't true.
A little bit of extra digging shows the same information on:
For whatever it's worth, the Wikipedia entry on the question cites the Gould website above as its source.
Irrespective of everything else, what does it matter if he did or not? The argument that he accepted god from most creationists is essentially no different from an ad hominem argument in the first place.
I’m just not sure why it would matter? There are Creationists, sure, but there are plenty of Christians who accept Evolution…Like, for example, the entire Catholic church.
I’d say his beliefs were far more influenced by his crappy religious upbringing than by his scientific theories…During his time Evolution wasn’t considered the threat to religion that modern evangelicals have painted it, so he could certainly have believed both, though he is on the record saying that he might have been biased against attacking Christianity because he didn’t want to upset his family.
“I am a strong advocate for free thought on all subjects, yet it appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against christianity & theism produce hardly any effect on the public; & freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds, which follow[s] from the advance of science.”
–CD
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