The audio is here, and the text was:
Good morning,
In this “Darwin anniversary” week I am looking at four famous scientists and asking how their discoveries influenced their life and faith. Today I want to consider Darwin himself.
Although originally trained as a clergyman, it is well known that Darwin's theory of evolution, through natural selection, led him to doubt whether God existed. However, far from being an atheist, Darwin's writings reveal the struggles of a brilliant and thoughtful man trying to understand his place in the world. His insights into biology produced in him a deep humility as he realised how insignificant any individual is when viewed in the grand scheme of natural history.
Darwin's uncertainty is often viewed as a weakness, especially from the perspective of our 21st century knowledge driven society where everyone is a professional or expert in some area. Indeed Darwin's uncertainty is often used as an example of what happens when you try to mix different ways of understanding the world - "if only Darwin had stuck to science he would not have been so confused" some argue.
But this attitude seems to miss an important point. Darwin brilliantly formulated an answer to the question of origins, however in exploring this answer he discovered a whole range of new questions that went beyond just Biology. Questions of morality, purpose and meaning can certainly be illuminated by science, however science can never give the full picture. Darwin's theory was a great stride forward for human knowledge, however he recognised that an understanding of how we came about cannot really answer questions about why we are here. Although theories such as evolution are great for explaining the how questions, we need to look elsewhere for understanding the why questions.
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