Did Charles Darwin recant on his deathbed?

Hemant Mehta ([ Ссылка ], [ Ссылка ] , [ Ссылка ])


There's a rumor that always floats around on the Internet that Charles Darwin recanted on his deathbed. He was a self-described Agnostic, but he suddenly found God just before he died in 1882.

First of all, even if that were true, it wouldn't mean evolution is wrong. The evidence Darwin provided, the massive amounts of evidence we've discovered since then, it all points to the truth of his theory.

But how did that rumor even begin?

It was all invented by a British evangelist named Lady Elizabeth Hope.

She said in 1915 that she visited with Darwin before his death, and he was reading the Bible, and he mildly questioned evolution on his deathbed.

She then wrote about the whole encounter for a Baptist magazine.

Turns out there were some problems with her story.

She said she visited Darwin 7 months before he died, so he wasn't on his deathbed.

There's no proof Darwin was ever studying the Bible.

He didn't renounce evolution, even in her story. He also didn't say evolution was wrong in her story. So who knows how those legends sprang.

Most importantly, the people who were actually around Darwin when he died -- his daughter Henrietta and his son Francis -- they very publicly rebutted her article and said it's all untrue.

If their dad suddenly became a Christian, they would've known about it.

So why would this Lady Hope woman lie? Well, her critics say she had an overactive imagination and she was a good storyteller. She also had little to lose by sharing this story.

And you can understand why Christians would love the story. It means someone who probably did more harm to religion than anyone else in history -- for good reason -- saw the light.

It wouldn't be the first time they believed a work of fiction.

To their credit, even Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham's Creationist group, admits it's all a hoax and that Christians shouldn't spread that story or take it seriously.

But my favorite reaction is from Richard Dawkins, who says that when he's dying, he's going to have a tape recorder switched on so that everyone knows he didn't turn to Christ in his dying hours.


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