hen evolution is mentioned today, the first name that comes to mind is that of Charles Darwin. Regardless of the fact that belief in the evolution of living things lies at the root of many ancient pagan religions, the one who brought the concept into its present form was Darwin. As one gets to know the religion of Darwinism, an important myth to be overcome is that which has grown up about Darwin over the past 150 years. Charles Darwin has been presented for years as a brilliant, successful man of science, an objective researcher. The fact that he is remembered in evolutionist circles as "the greatest scientist" and the "genius of the century" is basically due to propaganda. However, when Darwin's life and ideas are scrutinized, it becomes clear that this is not the case.

Charles Darwin

Darwin, contrary to what everyone thinks, was neither an important scientist, nor the "lord of the species" who solved the mysteries of nature. The founder of this religion was but a layman who received a Protestant education and failed to complete his medical studies. He was an amateur researcher afflicted by many undiagnosed illnesses who was taciturn and avoided arguments, whose mind was full of doubts, who had difficulty in thinking logically, who was solitary and lived in a confused spiritual world. In an emotional reaction to the death of his young daughter, he became rebellious against God and religion. It was in this unhealthy spiritual state that he proposed his thesis that would later become known as the "foundation of atheism."

Darwin first preached the fundamentals of the theory in detailed form to important scientists in his circle through conversations, articles and personal letters. What Darwin left unfinished or insufficiently elaborated was completed by his followers, who subsequently continued to expound the theory Darwin's The Origin of Species, which is revered as if it were a holy book, is actually full of impasses and contradictions and is based on an inconsistent logic relying on mere probabilities and guesses. Darwin himself regarded his book not so much as a scientific work but as "a long argument." Darwin acknowledged the weaknesses, incon-sistencies, impasses and difficulties of his theory in his writings and in letters to friends. In one letter he confessed that there were serious flaws in the theory which had brought him to the point of suicide:

You ask about my book, and all that I can say is that I am ready to commit suicide; I thought it was decently written but find so much wants rewriting...40

In another letter, he said: Pray do not think that I am so blind as not to see that there are numerous immense difficulties in my notions.41

Particularly in letters to his friend,Charles Lyell(below-right),he clearly expresses the doubts he felt with regard to his theory:

Thinking of so many cases of men pursuing an illusion for years, often and often a cold shudder has run through me, and I have asked myself whether I may not have devoted my life to a phantasy.42

Charles Lyell

Moreover, Darwin was aware of errors and unfounded claims in his theory. He wrote:

Long before having arrived at this part of my work, a crowd of difficulties will have occurred to the reader. Some of them are so grave that to this day I can never reflect on them without being staggered.43

In a letter to his close friend, Asa Gray, he defined his theory as extra-scientific speculation:

"I am quite conscious that my speculations run quite beyond the bounds of true science."44

Asa Gray

Some later scientists have also pointed to Darwin's contradictory spirit and unsound logic. The fact that the founder of a theory which was presented to the world as absolute reality has a mind filled with contradictions and doubts gives rise to serious misgivings about the foundation upon which the theory is built. The American physicist Lipson has this to say about Darwin's fears:

On reading The Origin of Species, I found that Darwin was much less sure himself than he is often represented to be; the chapter entitled "Difficulties of the Theory," for example, shows considerable self-doubt. As a physicist, I was particularly intrigued by his comments on how the eye would have arisen.45

How did Darwin fall in love with "a phantasy"? As a child, he had a prolonged religious education providing him with knowledge about the beliefs, doctrines and religious history of ancient civilizations. But on the other hand, he was profoundly affected by the positivist, materialist thought of the century in which he lived. In particular, it was his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, who held anti-religious views that had a radical influence on him.