The Influence Of Darwinism Upon Religious Thought 1859-1909

In 1859, Darwin's The Origin of Species was published, and this declared officially the birth of evolution by natural selection. In 1909, the meeting was held to commemorate the centennial of Darwin's birth and the fiftieth anniversary of publication of The Origin of Species. Many Western scholars lecture the issue related to evolution at the meeting, and they sorted and published Darwin and Modern Science according to the content discussed. Professor P.N.Waggett made a summing-up discussion on evolution and religion in a article named "Darwin's Influence on Religious Thought". In this context, I intercepted the limited space of this historic time:1859– 1909, and discussed the influence upon Creation and the divine Design of the of natural theology from a scientific point of view since The Origin of Specie was published 50 years,and the changes of religious thought under the influence.The structural frame of this paper is divided into four parts: In the first part of the paper, I reconstruct the theory of evolution by natural selection of Darwin, and the doctrine of common descent is the main line of evolution theory, while evolution mechanism by natural selection is Darwin′s innovation. In the second part, I mainly discussed the impact of Darwin's theory of evolution on Christian theology. The impact on Creation has reached to the peak Until the "Oxford Debate". The conflict between science and religion focused on "man" issue,and this led to the debate which involved in the origin of mankind and the place of man in nature. The divine Design theory of natural theology have been eliminated by Darwin's theory of the struggle for existence. In the third part, I account for the impact of empirical method which Darwinism brought upon Christian theology ideas, such as the Protestant theologians, made effort to rebuild Christian at difficulties in the way of modern thought, including Schlayer Mach, and Lechler, etc. In the last part, I outline the overall picture of Christian under the influence of Darwinism. In addition to discuss the challenges and opportunities which Christian theology will face. Moreover, I described the outlook of Christian theology in the future In order to show the innovation and development trends of Christian, Such as Crisis Theology, Process Theology and Personalist Theology. Meanwhile, I reviewed the debates between science and religion in the history of modern science ,including the "Monkey Trial" and "Trial of the Century", and understanding on today's "intelligent design theory". And the argument is essentially a debate on the origins of the universe between Neocreationism and Evolution.Darwinism presented many challenges toward Christian doctrine in many aspects at that time. The doctrine of common descent eliminated Creation and the unique position of man, and this indicated that it must re-estimate and evaluate human nature and destiny of their own . The enormous impact upon religious thought mainly focus on the "man" issue, and produce the argument about the origin and the nature of man.How did man come from? Was man evolved or created by God ? If man evolved, was he the purpose in nature? Has he reached the end? Darwin's answer is that all organisms ,including man, are descended from common ancestors. Human is not God's works, God has never plan to create man kindly. Human are the natural order and evolutionary process. Darwin thought human as a part of natural order. And we will explain anything about man by natural causes. Thus it end the special relationship between human beings and God which Christian declared. The place of human decline to the same status with animals from the natural center by Darwin after Copernicus.Thereby it undermined the Christian anthropocentrism. And Darwin gave a scientific interpretation of human nature itself. In fact, Darwin just uncovered religious veil and restore the original appearance of mankind. Theory of natural selection also impacted the divine Design. There is a struggle for existence which is cruel and is tremendous destructive in nature. And this eliminated the natural harmony advocated the divine Design. The biological evolution shows randomness,and this indicates that all things are not designed purposefully by God; Biological "perfect" is relative and is the historical product of natural processes, and it is specific adaptation in the living environment. Darwin explained the wonder adaptation in nature by introducing competition and chance into nature. Natural causes Darwinism assumed separated completely God and all the special creater. The new interpretation excluded the divine Design through the random process of natural selection. Darwin eliminated the supernatural power, and thus he replaced the mechanical static view of nature advocated by Christian theology with a dynamic picture of the world. Although the biological concept of evolution conflict with religion, the scientific mode of thinking and empirical methods have also encouraged the further development of theology related mode of thinking.These are: the evolutionist observation and empirical methods in theology, in christian history, and in the estimate scripture, has received vast reinforcement: the recoil of Christian apologetics towards the ground of religious experience, a recoil produced by the pressure of scientific criticism upon other supports of faith: the restatement, or the recovery of ancient forms of statement, of the doctrines of Creation and of divine Design in nature. Protestant liberal theologists,including Schleiermacher and Lechler,advocated to rebuild the Christian tradition in the context of Christian theology in order to bridge cracks between faith and modern knowledge, and the theologists reconstructed the Christian faith and Christian tradition by the modern mode of thinking, and they abandoned the traditional doctrine which conflicted with the knowledge of human progress. Liberal theologists seek to locate the faith on the common experience of peple. Thus they transformed the rigid section into the Christian religious experience of one's hearts. Once the religion set the new starting point, then burst out the vitality of life, all-encompassing theological system no longer appears. Theologists constructed a theoretical system with different styles according to different focus. Theology was rescued from desperate situation under the critique pressure of science and got life. the Monkey Trial——the century trial——Intelligent design, the debate between Evolution and religion is still continuing. Ultimately, the arguments are rooted in the understanding of truth. Human tireless pursued truth in the long river of human history and it is human nature. From truth of Ancient Greek natural philosophy, truth of belief in the authority, to modern science and rational truth, the debate on the criterion of truth has been run through. From Newton's era to the present, the differences between science and Christian doctrine continue to grow. History has proven that the standard of truth is not in the Inquisition and the Pope there. Scientific objective is correct and rationality. If scientists find that gravitational theory inconsistent with the facts, they will not hesitate to deny it. "Truth," which also sparked numerous conjectures and questions.I am also interested in the basis of debate between Evolution and religion, and extended to the the thinking about relationship between science and religion. Does Science and religion conflict, or completely separate? What kind of inspiration has given us from the conflict? What is the truth to both sides in the debate? Are they the two different ways to explore the truth? Does the truth exists? what is the criterion of truth? I will discuss the questions in this paper carefully.