To John Fordyce 7 May 1879
Down Beckenham | Kent [Heene, Worthing.]
May 7th 1879
Private
Dear Sir
It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man may be an ardent Theist & an evolutionist.—1 You are right about Kingsley.2 Asa Gray, the eminent botanist, is another case in point—3 What my own views may be is a question of no consequence to any one except myself.— But as you ask, I may state that my judgment often fluctuates. Moreover whether a man deserves to be called a theist depends on the definition of the term: which is much too large a subject for a note. In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.— I think that generally (& more and more so as I grow older) but not always, that an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind.4
Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Fordyce, John. 1883. Aspects of scepticism: with special reference to the present time. London: Elliot Stock.
Gray, Asa. 1860a. Discussion between two readers of Darwin’s treatise on the origin of species, upon its natural theology. American Journal of Science and Arts 2d ser. 30: 226–39.
Gray, Asa. 1860b. Review of Darwin’s theory on the origin of species by means of natural selection. American Journal of Science and Arts 2d ser. 29: 153–84.
Origin 2d ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1860.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
White, Paul. 2014. The conduct of belief: agnosticism, the Metaphysical Society, and the formation of intellectual communities. In Victorian scientific naturalism: community, identity, continuity. Edited by Gowan Dawson and Bernard Lightman. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
