Presenter: Sarah Rohrs
Faculty Advisor: Wil Rivers
Phone Number: X6544
skrohr01@stlawu.edu

Poster Presentation

This research was done on Charles Darwin, the founding father of modern evolutionary theory. He was raised in a very well mannered family, and ironically, attended a school in order to become a priest. Little did he know that he would grow up to become one of the most controversial men ever to lead a scientific revolution which had the ability to challenge a very powerful force: Christianity. Darwin believed that every living creature came from one organism, which seemed to be a more effective theory than the Bible’s assertion that God created everything we see. He also thought that God, if he was indeed real, was not a very good one because he allowed so many people to suffer. Darwin also believed that the God portrayed in the Bible did not have the ability to create some of nature’s wonders, but only the theory of use and disuse explained such phenomena. Throughout his career, Darwin boldly questioned God and all things religious, for which he was constantly criticized. He stated was just fine for any individual to not believe in a God as long as they strongly believed in their views. “A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of the future existence with retribution and reward, can have for his rule of life, as far as I can see, only to follow those impulses and instincts which are the strongest or which seem to him the best ones.”