Darwin

Question 1

Why does Darwin represent a great theological story?

Answer 1

He struggled with God, which is a good part of your spiritual voyage.

Question 2

What is the Psalm 19 factor?

Answer 2

The heavens declare the glory of God.

Question 3

Darwin made it possible to be…

Answer 3

An intellectually fulfilled atheist/theist.

Question 4

What is the name of Darwin’s 1859 book?

Answer 4

“Origin of Species”

Question 5

What theory was explored in Darwin’s 1859 book, the “Origin of Species?”

Answer 5

Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection.

Question 6

What are Paley’s 3 premises about nature?

Answer 6

1. Intelligent design.
2. Perfect adaptation.
3. Beneficence.

Question 7

How did Paley’s 3 premises confuse Darwin?

Answer 7

They were conflated, and Darwin could not separate ID from perfect adaptation and beneficence.

Question 8

“A Geologist perhaps would suggest that the ___ ___ ___ have been distinct & remote the one from the other; that the Creator rested in his labor.” -Darwin

Answer 8

Periods of Creation.

Question 9

“I had gradually come by this time [Oct 1836 to Jan 1839], to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly ___ ___ of the world, with the Tower of Babel [Gen 11], the rainbow as a sign [Gen 9], etc., etc., and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or any barbarian.” -Darwin

Answer 9

False history.

Question 10

“By such reflections as these [1-3], which I give not as having the least novelty or value, but as they influenced me, I came to ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___.” -Darwin

Answer 10

Disbelieve Christianity as a divine revelation.

Question 11

“Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy of the interposition of a deity, more humble & I believe truer to consider him created ___ ___.” -Darwin

Answer 11

From animals.

Question 12

“Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully satisfied with the view that each species has been independently created ___ ___ ___, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes like those determining the birth and death of the individual.” -Darwin.

Answer 12

By the Creator.

Question 13

“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been ___ ___ into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -Darwin.

Answer 13

Originally breathed.

Question 14

“With respect to the theological view of the question. This is always painful to me. I am bewildered. I had no intention to write ___.” -Darwin to Gray.

Answer 14

Atheistically.

Question 15

“The birth both of the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of ___ ___.” -Darwin

Answer 15

Blind chance.

Question 16

“When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look at a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a ___.” -Darwin

Answer 16

Theist.

Question 17

“___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___…I may state that my judgement often fluctuates…In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an ___ in the sense of denying the existence of a God. I think that generally (and more & more as I grow older), but not always, that an ___ would be the more correct description of my state of mind.” -Darwin to Fordyce

Answer 17

• It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent theist & an evolutionist.
• Atheist.
• Agnostic.

Question 18

“I said it was impossible to look at these without seeing that they were the effect and the expression of mind. I shall never forget Mr. Darwin’s answer. He looked at me very hard and said, ‘Well, that often comes over me with ___ ___; but at other times,’ and he shook his head vaguely, adding, ‘___ ___ ___ ___ ___.’” -Duke of Argyll on Darwin

Answer 18

• Overwhelming force.

- It seems to go away.

Question 19

Was Darwin an atheist?

Answer 19

No.

Question 20

___ ___ was a major factor in Darwin’s thinking because nature impacted him powerfully and often.

Answer 20

Intelligent design.

Question 21

Christians gave Darwin a mistaken view of origins through ___ ___.

Answer 21

Progressive creation.

Question 22

Christians gave Darwin a mistaken view of design through ___ ___.

Answer 22

Paly’s conflation.

Question 23

Christians gave Darwin a mistaken view of hermeneutics of Genesis 1-11 through ___ and ___ ___.

Answer 23

Literalism, scientific concordism.