"English biologist Thomas H. Huxley (1825–1895), also known as ‘Darwin’s bulldog’, was the most prominent humanist and aggressive advocate of evolution of his day. On reading the Origin of Species he wrote to Charles Darwin:
In 1869, he coined the term ‘agnostic’ (from Greek a = not, gnosis = knowledge) to describe himself and his position that he did not know whether God existed or not. Nevertheless, his lifelong opposition to almost all forms of organized religion led Communist leader Lenin to perceptively observe that “in Huxley’s case … agnosticism serves as a fig-leaf for materialism”. By ‘materialism’, Lenin meant the philosophy that the material was all there was, i.e. no supernatural, in short, atheism.
Huxley faced a dilemma—the same one which the evolutionary establishment faces today. On the one hand, in lectures up and down the land,
Huxley taught people that they were evolved animals. But, lest they behave like animals as the natural consequence of such teaching, he wanted all children to acquire the elements of Christian morality. His solution: teach the Bible in schools, without theology, i.e. whatever you do don’t teach that we were created by God and so are answerable to Him.
Huxley once wrote,
“I finished your book yesterday. … And as to the curs which will bark & yelp—you must recollect that some of your friends at any rate are endowed with an amount of combativeness which (though you have often & justly rebuked it) may stand you in good stead.Henceforth, in public lectures, debates, reviews of the Origin and numerous essays, Huxley vigorously promoted the doctrine of evolution, despite the fact that he disagreed with Darwin on the tempo of evolution (Huxley favoured sudden or drastic changes, sometimes called ‘saltation’ or ‘jumps’, which Darwin abhorred), and Huxley was not wholly convinced that natural selection was the mechanism.
“I am sharpening up my claws & beak in readiness.”
In 1869, he coined the term ‘agnostic’ (from Greek a = not, gnosis = knowledge) to describe himself and his position that he did not know whether God existed or not. Nevertheless, his lifelong opposition to almost all forms of organized religion led Communist leader Lenin to perceptively observe that “in Huxley’s case … agnosticism serves as a fig-leaf for materialism”. By ‘materialism’, Lenin meant the philosophy that the material was all there was, i.e. no supernatural, in short, atheism.
Huxley faced a dilemma—the same one which the evolutionary establishment faces today. On the one hand, in lectures up and down the land,
Huxley once wrote,
“The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties, blind faith the one unpardonable sin. … The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification.”Huxley rejected the authority of God as his Creator and Judge. And, despite his sneer at faith as a sin, he based his whole life, as well as his future in Eternity, on his own faith in a theory of origins for which there is no empirical verification. He failed to understand that he was interpreting his claimed scientific evidence through the filter of his own worldview." CMI
Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools,
Romans 1:22
