It is to Darwin's credit as a Scientist that he was honest enough to express doubts about the validity of his theory of Evolution. These are recorded in the sixth chapter of his book on the origins of the species and this chapter is entitled "Difficulties on Theory" (Darwin C., 1974). Some difficulties are also recorded in other chapters.
General difficulties: "Long before having arrived at this part of my work, a crowd of difficulties will have occurred to my reader. Some of them are so grave that to this day I can never reflect on them without being staggered .......". Also: " .....scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume on which the facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I arrived".
On natural selection: And to think that the eye could evolve "by natural selection seems, I freely confess, absurd to the highest degree". Also: "Nothing at first can appear more difficult to believe than that the more complex organisms and instincts should have been perfected, not by means superior to, though analogous with, human reason, but by the accumulation of innumerable slight variations ........".
On instinct: Such "simple" instincts as bees making a beehive could be "sufficient to overthrow my whole theory".
On his own reasoning: "But then arises the doubt, can the mind of a man, which has, as I fully believe, been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animals, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions? ....... Would anyone trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind".
In relation to religious thought: Darwin referred to his theory as "The devil's gospel" (Ankerberg, 1998a).
On fossil evidence: "Why then is not every geological formation full of such intermediate links. Geology assuredly does not reveal any finely graduated organic change, and this is the most obvious and serious objection that can be urged against the theory"
Recommended books
"Darwin's Leap of Faith, by John Ankerberg and John Weldon".
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