Man’s understanding of his origins was revolutionized with the 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, by renowned English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). The book presents a body of evidence in support of the claim that the diversity of life on Earth arose from a unique ancestor through the branching pattern of evolution—a process that entails mind-boggling amounts predation, suffering, and death. The theological implications of the scientific theory of evolution have been debated ever since, particularly as they relate to the problem of evil.
American botanist Asa Gray (1810–1888) was one of the first to suggest that God may have created life through the process of evolution (a theory that has come to be known as “theistic evolution”). Gray was a professor of botany at Harvard University and regularly corresponded with many of the leading natural scientists of the era, including Darwin. In the letter below, Darwin expresses his bewilderment at the notion that a beneficent and omnipotent God could have created life through such a vicious process.
Letter to Asa Gray (May 22, 1860)
With respect to the theological view of the question. This is always painful to me. I am bewildered. I had no intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice. Not believing this, I see no necessity in the belief that the eye was expressly designed. On the other hand, I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance. Not that this notion at all satisfies me. I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton. Let each man hope and believe what he can. Certainly I agree with you that my views are not at all necessarily atheistical. The lightning kills a man, whether a good one or bad one, owing to the excessively complex action of natural laws. A child (who may turn out an idiot) is born by the action of even more complex laws, and I can see no reason why a man, or other animal, may not have been aboriginally produced by other laws, and that all these laws may have been expressly designed by an omniscient Creator, who foresaw every future event and consequence. But the more I think the more bewildered I become; as indeed I probably have shown by this letter.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, ed. Francis Darwin, 2 vols. (New York: D. Appleton, 1919), II.105-6.