Table Of ContentTHE TERRY LECTURES
Private Doubt, Public Dilemma
Other Volumes in the Terry Lectures Series
Available from Yale University Press
The Courage to Be Paul Tillich
Psychoanalysis and Religion Erich Fromm
Becoming Gordon W. Allport
A Common Faith John Dewey
Education at the Crossroads Jacques Maritain
Psychology and Religion Carl G. Jung
Freud and Philosophy Paul Ricoeur
Freud and the Problem of God Hans Küng
Master Control Genes in Development and Evolution Walter J. Gehring
Belief in God in an Age of Science John Polkinghorne
Israelis and the Jewish Tradition David Hartman
The Empirical Stance Bas C. van Fraassen
One World: The Ethics of Globalization Peter Singer
Exorcism and Enlightenment H. C. Erik Midelfort
Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate
Terry Eagleton
Thinking in Circles: An Essay on Ring Composition Mary Douglas
The Religion and Science Debate: Why Does It Continue? Edited by
Harold W. Attridge
Natural Reflections: Human Cognition at the Nexus of Science and Religion
Barbara Herrnstein Smith
Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the
Self Marilynne Robinson
Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History Ahmad Dallal
The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could
Transform the World Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack
The Scientific Buddha: His Short and Happy Life Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism Philip Kitcher
Private Doubt,
Public Dilemma
Religion and Science
since Jefferson and Darwin
KEITH THOMSON
New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the foundation established in
memory of William McKean Brown.
Copyright © 2015 by Keith Thomson.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomson, Keith Stewart.
Private doubt, public dilemma : religion and science since
Jefferson and Darwin / Keith Thomson.
pages cm. — (The Terry lectures series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-20367-7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Religion and
science. 2. Darwin, Charles, 1809–1882. 3. Jefferson, Thomas,
1743–1826. I. Title.
BL240.3.T485 2015
201′.65—dc23
2014040042
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The Dwight Harrington Terry Foundation Lectures
on Religion in the Light of Science and Philosophy
The deed of gift declares that “the object of this founda-
tion is not the promotion of scientific investigation and dis-
covery, but rather the assimilation and interpretation of
that which has been or shall be hereafter discovered, and its
application to human welfare, especially by the building of
the truths of science and philosophy into the structure of a
broadened and purified religion. The founder believes that
such a religion will greatly stimulate intelligent effort for the
improvement of human conditions and the advancement of
the race in strength and excellence of character. To this end
it is desired that a series of lectures be given by men emi-
nent in their respective departments, on ethics, the history
of civilization and religion, biblical research, all sciences and
branches of knowledge which have an important bearing on
the subject, all the great laws of nature, especially of evolu-
tion . . . also such interpretations of literature and sociology
as are in accord with the spirit of this foundation, to the end
that the Christian spirit may be nurtured in the fullest light
of the world’s knowledge and that mankind may be helped
to attain its highest possible welfare and happiness upon this
earth.” The present work constitutes the latest volume pub-
lished on this foundation.
Brethren, scholars, men of science, yours is a priestly calling.
ANdrew P. PeABOdy , The Connection between Science and
Religion: An Oration Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society
of Harvard University, August 28, 1845
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
ONe. The Long-Standing Problem 1
TwO. Religion and Science 13
Three. Mr. Jefferson’s Dilemma 25
fOur. Ancient of Days 43
fIve. Mr. Darwin’s Religion 65
SIx. The Devil and Mr. Darwin 95
SeveN. Debates and Academics 107
eIghT . Clerics and Apes 125
NINe. The Decline of Authority 137
TeN. A Way Forward? 153
APPeNdI x. Bishop Samuel Wilberforce’s
Oxford Address 169
Notes 189
Index 201
vii
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Preface
Charles Darwin was never just a scientist; he was fascinated
by metaphysics and tormented about religion. During the
tense period in 1838 just before the final pieces of his theory
of evolution by natural selection fell into place, just as he was
about to propose to Emma Wedgwood, and just before his
health failed miserably under the pressure of it all, he had been
reading Wordsworth. Judging by entries that he made in his
M Notebook, he had been thinking about the branch of the-
ology called natural theology, according to which the beauty,
order, and purposiveness of life on earth can be seen as proof
of God’s existence. Intrigued by his own aesthetic responses
to nature, he made a set of telegraphic notes on the problem of
assessing beauty, particularly the beauty of scenery, including
this reference: “[See] Wordsworth about science being suffi-
ciently habitual to become poetical.”1 There is a second refer-
ence to Wordsworth in a notebook from the end of 1856: “At
ix
