Deism was an option prior to Darwin because there was no rational way to explain how everything got here. After Darwin supplied that, the people who would have been deists became atheists instead. As Richard Dawkins says, "Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist."
“Deism was an option prior to Darwin because there was no rational way to explain how everything got here. After Darwin supplied that, the people who would have been deists became atheists instead. As Richard Dawkins says, “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.””
Maybe it made it possible to be an atheist, but as a Deist myself I see no conflict with between what Deists believe and Darwin’s theory.