As a devout Christian, allow me to write that Darwin’s accomplishment was a spark of genius. What happened to him for the rest of his life after giving voice to one of the most brilliant obeservational conclusions is another matter.
Some would have you believe that any insight into the Divine process that God introduced life into a dynamic universe is blasphemy, but that is the product of the same small mind types who persecuted those who taught that the sun, not the earth was the center of the solar system.
As a devout Christian who lives in New Zealand, I believe in Creation AND Evolution: the two ideas coexist beautifully if you do not insist on taking the first few books of Genesis literally.
It is impossible to live in New Zealand or Australia and seriously believe in the Genesis account literally and in isolation.
Charles Darwin was a genius who got it about half-right.
To be a Christian and not know that is disgraceful.
Whether one agrees with evolution or not, most would have to agree that as a scientist/naturalist/anthropologist, Darwin was pretty far up there.
His “Voyage of the Beagle” is an amazing work. The descriptions of the wildlife, the geology, the social cultures he runs into are simply astounding.
I highly recommend this book, it’s not about evolution, it’s about taking a (what was at the time) dam dangerous long journey over the ocean in a rickety boat!
“allow me to write that Darwin’s accomplishment was a spark of genius”
Darwin’s ideas were mostly if not completely borrowed from others before him, going back at least as far as Lucretius in the first century B.C.