Grzegorz Malec

This article is an attempt to define the exact date of Charles Darwin’s loss of faith in God. The English naturalist and evolutionist in his early stages of life was definitely a theist. The author claims that the first doubts concerning the Creator’s existence appeared on board of the HMS Beagle. After returning from his expedition, Darwin dedicated himself to the work on the notes he collected. In these notes Darwin claimed that morality is nothing more than useful behavior transmitted by generations and faith is only an effect of a religious upbringing. According to the author, at the turn of the 1830s. and 1840s. Darwin had already had serious doubts concerning the truthfulness of the Christian doctrine. Finally, Darwin lost his faith after the death of his beloved daughter on 23 April 1851.

CHARLES DARWIN AND LADY HOPE – THE LEGEND STILL ALIVE The theme of the present paper is the story of Darwin’s conversion as spread by Elizabeth Hope. Her article was published in August 1915. She wrote under the pseudonym “Lady Hope”, and her paper was titled “Darwin and Christianity”. Elizabeth Hope claimed that she visited Charles Darwin in autumn 1881, a couple of months before his death. Darwin during her visit was supposedly bedfast and reading Hebrews. During their conversation Darwin allegedly asked her to speak about Jesus Christ and sing some hymns in his summer house. I claim that (1) strong arguments exist that Lady Hope’s story is only the fruit of her imagination, and (2) all her adherents can only have hope that Darwin, renouncing his theory, returned to Christianity. Finally, I show some unpublished opinions of modern scholars which indicate that Darwin’s conversion never took place, and he never rejected his theory of evolution by natural selection.