"In this year of all years, we should be celebrating Darwin's great biological achievements and not fighting over his legacy as some kind of anti-theologian."
2009 also marks the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” in which he set out his theory of evolution, and churches are marking both anniversaries with special seminars, exhibitions and events.
“We join in celebrating the life and work of Darwin because he helped us all to see better the intricacy of God’s creation, and forced us to wrestle once more with the eternal problems of good and evil,” Dr Luscombe added.
The Church of England is marking the anniversaries with the launch of a new section on its website highlighting the “forgotten” church work done by Darwin in his local parish of Downe in Kent.
The section has been launched by the Church to demonstrate that science and church work are not mutually exclusive and that although Darwin lost his own faith in the Christian religion, he still supported the church and did not become anti-religious.
Articles tell of how Darwin used to supervise church and school finances, was founder and treasurer for 30 years of a “Friendly Club”, and ran the local Coal and Clothing Fund for 21 years.
The Rt Rev Dr Lee Rayfield, Bishop of Swindon and a former biological scientist, said, “This bicentenary is providing a much needed opportunity to gather a more rounded appreciation of Charles Darwin, his life and his work. I hope these pages will assist broader reflection on the relationship between religious conviction and scientific endeavour in ways which will be creative for our own time.”
Earlier in the week, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, described Darwin in a Times column as “one of Britain’s most extraordinary scientists” and called his theory of evolution “one of the greatest discoveries of all time”.
Father Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Santa Croce University in Rome, said that St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas had drawn similar conclusions to Darwin about the development of the natural world, according to The Telegraph.
Atheists and Christians continue to disagree on Darwin's theory. According to a survey of more than 2,000 people, recently published by religion think tank Theos, more than half of Britons believe the theory of evolution cannot explain the complexity of the natural world. One in three said they thought God created the Earth within the past 10,000 years.
In 2002, Charles Darwin was voted the fourth greatest Briton on the BBC’s 100 Greatest Britons poll. He followed Winston Churchill, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Princess Diana.
