Darwin’s Anti-Gospel

Darwin contrasted his views with the Gospel. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Writing to Thomas Huxley on August 8, 1860, Charles Darwin ended his letter with the words:

“My good & kind agent for the propagation of the Gospel ie [sic] the Devil's gospel.”

The Wikipedia editors think that this remark is humorous. However, the gospel that Huxley propagated was almost the exact opposite of the real gospel that speaks of God’s great love. Huxley’s (and Darwin’s) “gospel” focuses on the cruelty found in nature. The fruit of that gospel of unbelief are horrendous.

Source:

Darwin Correspondence Project.

Christianity.com Repeats Old Myths About the Legendary Debate Between Huxley and Wilberforce

Thomas Huxley was known as Darwin's bulldog. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Recently, many Christians who consider themselves evangelicals have openly spoken in favour of theistic evolution. Christianity Today for instance doubted the testimony Genesis gives of Adam and Eve as real historical individuals.

Now it’s the turn of Christianity.com. It repeats old myths about the earliest public debate on evolution. In 1860, Samuel Wilberforce exchanged views on evolution with Thomas Huxley, who is known as Darwin’s bulldog.

Christianity.com erroneously describes the debate as one between science and religion and claims that Wilberforce did not know much about science.

Samuel Wilberforce, who was the son of the Christian politician and anti-slavery activist William Wilberforce (1759-1833), knew more about Charles Darwin’s theory than skeptics assume. Five weeks before the debate the bishop had written a review of The Origin of Species in the Quarterly Review.

In July 1860, Darwin himself wrote to his friend Joseph Hooker about Wilberforce’s criticism: ”I have just read the "Quarterly". It is uncommonly clever; it picks out with skill all the most conjectural parts, and brings forward well all the difficulties.”

It was Hooker who later claimed that Wilberforce used sarcasm in the debate instead of scientific arguments. Although Darwinists are fond of repeating this myth, one would have expected Christianity.com to check the reliability of its sources.

The writer(s) of the article did not do this. Instead, Christianity.com warns its readers of the dangers of rejecting “science”.

However, an ideology that has to rely on myths in order to be at least somewhat credible does not have much to do with empirical science.

Sources:

Creation-Evolution Debate, Huxley vs. Wilberforce. Christianity.com. This Week in Christian History newsletter. 1 July 2011.

Lucas, John. 1979. Wilberforce and Huxley: A Legendary Encounter. BeThinking.org.

150 years ago: Wilberforce and Huxley debate evolution

In the summer of 1860, Thomas Huxley, who was known as Darwin’s Bulldog, and Samuel Wilberforce, the bishop of Oxford, debated evolution. Darwinists remember details of the debate that probably never happened. Image of Huxley, courtesy of Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Darwinists are fond of myths. They have made them of Galilei, the 1925 monkey trial at Dayton, and of a very famous early debate on evolution.

In a meeting of the British Association in Oxford on June 30, 1860, Thomas Huxley and bishop Samuel Wilberforce debated Darwinian evolution.

Many people assume that instead of using rational arguments, Wilberforce asked Huxley, ” Is it on your grandfather's or grandmother's side that you claim descent from the apes?”

Never afraid of a good fight, Huxley retorted, ” I would rather be descended from an ape than a bishop.”

However, while evolutionists like Darwin’s friend Sir Joseph Hooker would have liked to believe that this is what happened, it is a myth that is not supported by the evidence.

Samuel Wilberforce, who was the son of the Christian politician and anti-slavery activist William Wilberforce (1759-1833), knew more about Charles Darwin’s theory than skeptics assume. Five weeks before the debate the bishop had written a review of The Origin of Species in the Quarterly Review.

In July 1860, Darwin himself wrote to Hooker about Wilberforce’s criticism: ”I have just read the "Quarterly". It is uncommonly clever; it picks out with skill all the most conjectural parts, and brings forward well all the difficulties.”

Huxley had some strange ideas. He for instance thought that the Salvation Army was a dangerous sect. This is not a myth but is well-documented by the letters Huxley wrote to The Times.

In the debate Wilberforce, who was a fellow of the Royal Society, brought up the central ideas of his article, showing that the evidence did not support Darwin’s theory.

But in a crowded and noisy room it was probably easy for Darwinists to hear what they wanted to, including details that were never put to words.

Sources:

Huxley, Thomas H. 1893 (2006). Evolution and Ethics And Other Essays. New York: Barnes & Noble.

Lucas, John. 1979. Wilberforce and Huxley: A Legendary Encounter. BeThinking.org.

Moneron and Other Fictive Creatures as Evidences for Evolution

Ernst Haeckel invented a fictive creature known as the Moneron. He claimed that it was an intermediate form between the living and the non-living. Image: The Swedish translation of Haeckel’s Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte (1868). The book’s English translation was entitled The History of Creation.



Joel Kontinen

Evolutionists have seldom been satisfied by merely presenting scientific evidence, but every now and then they have used their imagination to promote their views. The most notorious example is the use of Ernst Haeckel’s fraudulent embryo drawings.

Unfortunately, they are still very much alive on the pages of some biology textbooks. Recently, Richard Dawkins used them as evidence for evolution.

At last weekend’s Darwin Was Wrong Conference, Robert Carter, who has a PhD in marine biology, lectured on the incorrect assumptions behind evolution. Following the example set by Charles Darwin, evolutionists have often thought that life is much simpler than it is.

Darwin assumed that life could have originated in a warm little pond. He did not know anything about the sophisticated structure of the cell.

Doctor Carter also mentioned Ernst Haeckel, who repeatedly used fraud to spread the good news of evolution.

Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist and professor of anatomy, invented the Moneron. He claimed it was an intermediate form, bridging the living and the non-living. He called it Protomyxa aurantiaca.

Thomas Huxley, who was known as Darwin’s bulldog, said he had found the creature in the North Atlantic. Huxley gave it the name Bathybius haeckelii. It later turned out to be gypsum.

Fraud did not end with Haeckel, however. After Moneron there was Nebraska man, then Piltdown man. In 1999 National Geographic magazine made headlines with a feathered dinosaur called Archaeoraptor.

Have evolutionists learnt from their old mistakes?

Probably not very much. Last May we heard of Ida whom they initially introduced as our great-great… great grandmother.

Sources:

Carter, Robert. 2009. Darwin Was Wrong about The Complexity of Life. Lecture at the Darwin Was Wrong Conference. (14 November).

Grigg, Russell. 1996. Ernst Haeckel: Evangelist for evolution and apostle of deceit. Creation 18(2):33–36. http://creation.com/ernst-haeckel-evangelist-for-evolution-and-apostle-of-deceit