h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I believe Darwin started his life as a believer in 'God Almighty'.
He had a sound education and knowledge of theology.
He later became agnostic, perhaps as many others were doing at the time, challenging the established 'Church'.

Any offers?

That doesn´t really make him eccentric. I remember someone wanting to make a movie about him, but found that other than making the theory of evolution, he lead a really dull life.

eccentric: a person who has an unusual, peculiar, or odd personality, set of beliefs, or behavior pattern.

Perhaps it's all relative ...

Or maybe you´re just wrong.

What I mean is, european society in his time thought he was eccentric. So, as many people today in the world 'believe in him', as there is much evidence to support his theories, we no longer consider him as such.
Perhaps it's all relative

I don't think disagreeing with majority opinion makes a person eccentric. It's more about unusual personal obsessions or mannerisms.

Hi BouncyBitInTheMiddle,

Well, I'm not Charles Darwin ( no, really ), but that must make ME eccentric, then.

No!

For most of his life Darwin was not an atheist, but a deist; that is he believed that a creator had designed the universe and set up natural laws according to which all of nature was unwaveringly governed.



Here, here.

Link below isn't that important but text by Dawkins is:

http://richarddawkins.net/article,3475,Darwin-shouldnt-be-hijacked-by-New-Atheists---he-is-an-ethical-inspiration,Madeleine-Bunting-Guardian

Richard Dawkins on Darwin:

"It is true that Darwin declined to call himself an atheist. But his motive, clearly expressed to the atheist intellectual Edward Aveling (incidentally the common-law husband of Karl Marx's daughter) was that Darwin didn't want to upset people. Atheism, in Darwin's view, was all well and good for the intelligentsia, but ordinary people were not yet "ripe" for atheism. So he called himself an agnostic, largely for diplomatic reasons..

In any case, what Darwin chose to call himself, as a pillar of his local parish in the nineteenth century, is of less interest than the cogency of the arguments themselves. Before Darwin came along, it was pretty difficult to be an atheist, at least to be an atheist free of nagging doubts. Darwin triumphantly made it EASY to be an intellectually fulfilled and satisfied atheist. That doesn't mean that understanding Darwin drives you inevitably to atheism. But it certainly constitutes a giant step in that direction. "

Hi 3Dotsplus1,

Why do you think text by Dawkins is more important than the rest of the article.
Dawkins is a mortal man like you and me, and is no more likely to be right or wrong than any other researcher, is he?

>> Darwin didn't want to upset people <<

It's not the 'best intention' to purposely upset your fellow man/woman without good reason, is it! We all have to live together in this world, preferably in peace.

It doesn't make logical/mathematical sense to me, when one looks at the magnificence of the universe, all 'bodies' perfectly balanced in orbit with each other, to suggest that this 'order' has come from nowhere, and will return to nowhere.

I have more difficulty, on a scientific platform, believing in "nothingness". I also find it very plausible that my researched opinion that Charles Darwin was a deist, is correct.

warner

Because that's the bit directly related to this thread?



That's probably because you haven't bothered or haven't got the mental capacity to learn the 'simple' facts about gravity. I won;t bother explaining because if, at your age, you haven't bothered understanding by now you never will.



Who beleives in 'nothingnes'? Oh, you mean athiests because if 'they' don't believe some god created the universe then 'they' must believe in 'nothing'. The 'nothingness' I believe in is the silence that happens just after you ask a Christian...if the universe couldn't come from 'nothing' then what greated your god? And if the sometimes answer 'god has always been here' arrives then the reply is: why can not the energy and material that formed the universe always been here?



Then you would be wrong in every part of that sentence.

Um, right...yes...nice answer.

Why do I bother.

Oh, 3Dotsplus1

I didn't mean to be rude.
I just wanted to 'diffuse' any

Perhaps I'll post some links, if necessary.

You could look at darwin-online.org.

I don't believe that you can prove God exists.
But then, I don't think you can prove 'He' doesn't, either

Could you prove the Easter Bunny doesn´t exist?

Mmm,

The quote I gave about him being a 'deist' comes from
towards the bottom of this page:-

http://darwin-online.org.uk/darwin.html

Hi Xanatic

Having said you can't PROVE 'He' doesn't exist,
there's a vast amount of knowledge available to mankind
about the nature of God(Lord of the Universe).

My research has led me to the conclusion that there IS a superior force/energy/being.
I am personally 100% convinced.

>> My research has led me to the conclusion that there IS a superior force/energy/being.
I am personally 100% convinced. <<

Well of course there is! http://www.venganza.org/

RF

So what does his autobiography actually state?

Good evening Reddyfreddy

I looked at your site/ref

and they all looked like they were 'having fun',
that's fine!

We all have varying amounts of 'religious knowledge', such as Pope, Archbishop ... Church-goer, faith-by-birth etc.

But if one REALLY is interested in God/truth/enlightenment, you need

1. a brain
2. an open mind
3. a clean heart
4. ...

Perhaps it's like giving up smoking etc.
You have to be serious about it.