Charles Darwin was born on this day in 1809.
Both sides of his family, the Darwins and the Wedgwoods were all Unitarian. Although it should be noted his grandfather Erasmus was a freethinker, as was, it appears, his father. He was baptised Anglican, but his mother took him to Unitarian services throughout his childhood. At this time admission to Cambridge and Oxford required one to at least nominally conform to the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, and so like many theological noncomformists Charles attended the University of Edinburgh, in his case to study medicine. As his interests began to shift his father purchased at auction a living for an Anglican priest (a worthy subject for a extended reflection all by itself…) and for a while Charles undertook theological studies. His interests would shift again and he withdrew from the ordination path.
With such a history it’s hard not to believe Charles would continue to have interest in religious thought. While he remained for his whole life a nominal Anglican, it seems to me obvious his Unitarian antecedents influenced his broad tolerance as well as his easy embrace of naturalism. Wikipedia has a very interesting article on Darwin’s religious views here.
Ultimately, however, and the point I wish to hold up here is how his theological stance really was agnosticism, a term coined by his colleague and supporter Thomas Huxley. And for me, as I increasingly believe the single most important theological principle is one of uncertainty, of not knowing, I rather enjoy suggesting Charles Darwin as a “saint” of that path…
As to this path of not knowing, I recently stumbled upon an interview with the radical Christian theologian Don Cupitt conducted by the equally radical Buddhist theologian (if you will) Stephen Batchelor, titled “The Eclectic Cleric.” Increasingly, as I’ve already said, this activist agnosticism seems to be the clearest spiritual path I’ve yet encountered & this interview is a pretty good introduction to how it might be engaged…
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