Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing

This summer during my three weeks as the guest minister in England, I visited Down House, Charles Darwin’s home of 40 years. This visit was both an intellectual and a spiritual high point for me. Standing in Charles Darwin’s study where he wrote On the Origin of Species was inspiring. I thought, 150 years ago, Charles Darwin sat right here pondering his natural selection and evolutionary theories. He wrote about his theories in the face of tremendous scientific as well as religious opposition. He proceeded with his research knowing he would disappoint some who were very close to him. He was especially aware of how it would disappoint his beloved and devoted wife. He knew that as he wrote, Emma Darwin was busy in another part of the house.

Visiting Darwin’s home, his study, his gardens and walking along the ¼ miles circular sand path he walked several times every day was a pilgrimage to a holy site. It was a spiritual experience. Remember, I grew up as a child of 1950’s and 1960’s when science was king. Before I knew what the words meant, I am told I said that I was going to become a nuclear physicist. I did not, but I did end up studying engineering during my first year of college, because my strong academic areas were in mathematics and science.

A sermon about Charles Darwin on the Sunday we do a Saint Francis of Assisi inspired animal blessing may seem a bit contradictory. And yet, Charles Darwin’s scientific understanding of nature relates human beings with other sentient beings. Saint Francis of Assisi seemed to have understood intuitively that humans and animals were closely related kindred spirits. Charles Darwin discovered through careful observation and diligent scientific analysis that humans and animals are indeed closely related.

He wrote about one day in San Salvador, Brazil, “Delight itself… is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who for the first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled me with admiration. … To a person fond of natural history, such a day as this brings with it a deeper pleasure than he can ever hope to experience again.” (The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, p.13)

I find a newly published book, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin by David Quammen utterly fascinating. Charles Darwin was definitely not reluctant when in his mid 20’s he was offered the possibility to travel around the world on the survey ship Beagle. That trip lasted four years, nine months and five days. From his accounts, he seemed willing and ready to take full advantage of his travels.

He wrote about how he was repeatedly impressed and puzzled by the wonderful diversity he discovered among the very same species of animals. He wondered, at first only to himself, were these different kinds of birds just varieties of one common species? Were the different kinds of animals just varieties of one common species? Yes, Darwin was a cautious man, and yet he ended up promoting a revolutionary idea among both religious and scientific leaders of his day, and even among many religious leaders of our own day.

Charles Darwin and his wife Emma were first cousins and both were said to have grown up as British Unitarians. The Darwin family was from the freethinker side of Unitarianism while Emma Wedgwood’s family came from a more pious Christian Unitarian perspective. You see, we did not think alike back then either.

Shortly after they were married, Emma wrote her husband, Charles, a private letter about her pious feelings about his doubts and his science-driven impiety. She admitted that she was ambivalent. She wrote to Charles, “While you are acting conscientiously and sincerely wishing and trying to learn the truth, you cannot be wrong.” But she could not always give herself that comfort. She worried that he was blind to the importance of revelation because he did not believed anything until it was shown scientifically. She also wrote that she feared that his careless, doubting brother, Erasmus, had unduly influenced Charles. So it was that Emma wrote in her letter a gentle warning of the danger he was bringing to his immortal soul by his rejection of dogma, especially his views on spiritual reward and punishment. It was Emma’s fear, as she put it, “I should be most unhappy if I thought we did not belong to each other for ever.”

Never the less, Darwin continued to ponder both theoretical and practical questions. Why do men have nipples? Why would some species of beetle have good wings that are sealed and unusable beneath covers? Why are there flightless birds with nubby little wings? If God were so smart and all-powerful, why would he create something that seemed so dumb?

Darwin’s fascination with nature, animals, plants and geology led him to conclusions about natural selection. He knew that domesticated animals could be bred for specific characteristics with impressive results. Then in 1838 Darwin read Thomas Malthus’ “Essay on the Principle of Population.” That is when something clicked for him. Of course that was it. Humans controlled the breeding of domestic animals. The breeding of wild animals was controlled by Malthusian principles of population. In nature, animals competed for food and they competed for mates. This competition worked against the weaker members of a species and gave an advantage to the stronger members.

Excitedly, Darwin wrote these ideas in a 189-page manuscript. He kept it hidden in his study. He did write a letter for his wife, Emma, in case of his sudden death. He indicated that this was the draft of his species theory. Darwin asked his wife to please get his manuscript published. He wanted her to enlist an appropriate person to finish, improve, and edit the work. He suggested that she offer that person 400 pounds, plus all Darwin’s natural history books, plus any profits that might come from publication.

Darwin knew he would cause a cultural uproar when he published his ideas. He had been a pious young man. While on the Beagle, he had been teased for frequently quoting the bible. But Darwin’s studies and reflection caused him to disbelieve in miracles and in a personal god. He wrote that he “gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as divine revelation.” It happened slowly, but it was complete. Darwin preferred the term, agnostic, coined by his good friend T.H. Huxley because the term atheist was a bit too confident and aggressive for him. Still, Darwin was not ready to make his theory public until a much younger man, Alfred Russel Wallace, wrote to him about his own ideas that closely resembled some of what Darwin had theorized. That caused Darwin to get out his old manuscript and write On the Origin of Species.
In October of 1859 the publisher optimistically ordered 1,250 copies for the first printing. Several days prior to official publication the book was offered to booksellers. 1,500 copies were ordered, more than sold out. A second printing was ordered immediately. So it is that The Origin of Species became one of the most influential books written. A very negative pre-publication reviewer wrote, “If a monkey has become a man - what may not a man become?” Darwin of course never wrote anywhere in the book that monkeys had became men. Rather he wrote about natural selection and evolution.

By the time I became a Unitarian Universalist in 1981, I was a thorough going humanist. Like Darwin, I had “gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as divine revelation.” I was glad not to be dealing with God, Jesus or spirituality. It was a relief not to have to deal with, justify and explain creeds, doctrines and religious language that no longer made sense to me.

Since then, I have slowly I relaxed my negative feelings about the religious views that I left behind. The freedom Unitarian Universalism has given me has helped me explore and develop a theological position of my own based on reason and science. Unitarian Universalism also allowed me to explore and develop my heart felt nature as a mystic. I rediscovered my connection to earth based spirituality. I grew up in a beautiful wooded area in northern Wisconsin known by the Chippewa Nation as Pleasant Valley. As a child, it was the earth, the air, the fire, the water and all the plants and sentient beings that nurtured me spiritually and communicated awe, wonder, humility and the sacred.

I do not need to believe in a personal god who created me in his likeness to sense that life is a sacred gift. I do not need to believe in doctrines new or old to sing Alleluia to the same spirit of life that flows through you, and me, and all of nature. I do not need to believe that an all-powerful deity controls everything that happens on earth and in heaven. Yet, I can relate to the desire to sing along with Saint Francis of Assisi: “All creatures of the earth and sky, come, kindred, lift your voices high…”

When Darwin heard the news that he would become a grandfather, he started a new literary project, from the heart. His mother died when he was eight, and in reflection he found it strange that he could not remember much about her. So, for his grandchildren, Darwin started to write stories about his life. He wrote about stealing apples from an orchard as a young boy. He wrote about collecting bird’s eggs and rocks as a child. And he wrote about how terribly guilty he still felt sixty years later about having been cruel to a puppy. The stories came easily. He wrote about his strengths and weaknesses and he wrote about his convictions and doubts.

Remember that letter that Emma wrote to Charles at the beginning of their marriage. He saved it for 40 years. He venerated Emma and was sensitive to her feelings. She believed in God and worried about his soul. He could not pretend to believe as she did but he honored her presence in his life. At some point, he wrote a message on the bottom of her original letter. It was discovered after his death. To his wife, Emma, he wrote, “When I am dead, know that many times, I have kissed and cryed over this. C.D.”

Charles Darwin and St. Francis come together for me in the merging of head and heart. We have both and we need to be in touch with both. It is best, if like Charles Darwin and Saint Francis, we are comfortable and at peace with both.

Darwin closed On The Origin of the Species with the following passage, “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.”