Darwin’s Rationalization

                                                                                                                               Vol. XXV, No. 1, January 2012 

       "Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted even for a single second that my conclusion was correct. I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true, for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my father, brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine."

[Charles Darwin, "Autobiography," reprinted in The Voyage of Charles Darwin, edited by Christopher Rawlings (BBC, 1978), "A Scientist's Thoughts on Religion," New Scientist, vol. 104 (December 20/27, 1984), p. 75.]