Artificial Selection inspired Darwin the most, he believed that Artificial selection occurs in nature (Natural selection) allowing the strongest and best adapt for their environment of each species to survive, thus passing on their strengths to the next generation and so on. In any population there are and will be variations, and those born with certain characteristics e.g. good eyesight, long legs, will enjoy and benefit from this trait and then pass it to their offspring. If their environment changes gradually then new characteristics may develop and as the environment continues to change the individuals with the best characteristics will live longer, do better and produce more offspring until eventually the population will look very different from its original and new species can develop when the environment favours new characteristics over old ones. Darwin held the belief that the variation between all animals, was in degree rather than in kind, and that the variety of species and their intricacy of them was achieved by random chance and natural selection, therefore there was no need for a creative purpose behind life.
Not surprisingly, Darwin’s theory of evolution by Natural Selection caused many problems for some Christians because it presented a new and alternative explanation of how life on earth actually began, denying humans of personal meaning and value. The three specific areas in the Christian faith which Darwin’s theory challenge most are, the challenge to biblical literalism, where the theory presented, does not fit in with the Genesis story of six days of creation or the fixity of species or that Eve was created from Adam’s rib. Also, Darwin’s theory challenged the dignity of humankind, where a large aspect of Christian faith focuses on ideas of human dignity in God’s creation and humans being created on the sixth day ‘in the image of god’ and the belief that humans have a soul separate from their bodies. Darwin argued, at what stage in evolution did the human soul emerge? The last aspect to be challenged was the aspect of God’s design and purpose, illustrated by William Paley's Telelogical Argument focussing on the evidence of Gods design and purpose within the Natural world to account for such a wide variety of species all suitably adapted to suit their environment and habitats. Contrary belief by Darwin was with natural selection, accidental chance mutations occurring in evolution provide and answer to Paley and that the design and purpose of such an intelligent being do not provide an answer.
Conclusively, Charles Darwin’s famous theory of evolution by the process of Natural selection attacked what are said to be the three main areas of Christian faith, Biblical literalism, gods design and purpose and the aspect of human dignity. Such a speculation made by Darwin was bound to have caused some effects and received some kind of response from different groups of Christians.
The Christian Fundamentalists have a literal understanding of the bible. Understanding the creation story as it is written word for word in Genesis. They believe the whole creation story and the book of Genesis are a crucial part of God’s revelation and are the foundation on the Christian faith. The challenge presented by Darwin posed a great attack on the fundamentalist belief, but they have responded to the challenge of evolution by simply denying the validity of natural selection and supporting ‘creation science’ which tries to verify major biblical events e.g. The Flood. Furthermore, some believe that if evolution is true then the entire Christian Faith is a sham; Dr William Provine from Cornell University wrote that Darwin recognised:
“…If Natural selection explained adaptations, and evolution by descent
were true, then the argument from design was dead and all that went with
it, namely 1) the existence of a personal God, 2)free will, 3)Life after
death, 4)immutable moral laws, and 5)ultimate meaning of life.”
There is also the Mainstream Christian view, which is offered by moderates within the church. This group of Christians have no problem with Darwin’s theory and state that the problems only arise when people take the Creation texts of Genesis literally. Thinkers within the church felt that the bible should be taken ‘metaphorically’ understanding the use of ‘days’ as not literally twenty four hours, but a ‘phases’ of time and accepting evolution as a method which God created. Charles Kingsley challenged Darwin and stressed that the concept of got that Darwin gave in his theory of evolution, was infact a noble one, being that God must have created creatures suitable for development. However, the trouble with accepting this view is that it puts limitations on the role God plays in creation, implying Deism rather than the Classical Theism of Christian belief.
Finally the radical Christians, who were closer to the mainstream Christians than to the fundamentalists, responded by seeing creation and redemption as part of the whole process of evolution. Tielhard de Chardin was a radical, and he saw evolution as a continuous process and Christ was the end product, bringing humanity closer to God. This group believe that God is evolving with us and is affected by changes in the world just like we are. God is not the God of Classical Theism; he is immanent rather than transcendent.
To conclude, The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection presented by Charles Darwin unsurprisingly caused much controversy within Christian society, Darwin did tackle the main areas in Christianity and for some, his work was such an enormous claim that there was no way they could accept it, their beliefs are such an important way of life and are much older than Darwin’s Theory, they most certainly had to reject it. However there are indeed groups of Christians who did accept the theory and began to hold an atheist view towards creation, or there are those who weighed up the evidence and accepted both Darwin’s theory and the Christian creation texts as long as the bible is not understood exactly as it is written. With such an advance and scientific view of creation it is no astonishment that Darwin was challenged, making certain people’s beliefs stronger, or people accepted Darwin making their beliefs weaken, but human nature being what it is, means if a large group of people holding strong beliefs are faced with contradicting information they will split into groups of what they choose to believe and this will continue to happen throughout time.
