If you read this:
I liked the thought of being a country clergyman…I did not then in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible, I soon persuaded myself that our creed must be fully accepted.
…you’d think Darwin remained a Christian. But the unedited passage tells a different story:
I liked the thought of being a country clergyman…I did not then in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible, I soon persuaded myself that our creed must be fully accepted. It never struck me how illogical it was to say that I believed in what I could not understand and what is in fact unintelligible.
The Darwin family nearly came to blows over whether and what to include, but eventually it was published with his religious doubts scrubbed out.
So how did we find out the truth about Darwin’s beliefs?