My wife
says
that I
can be a
very
confrontational
person.
When I
am
confronted
with a
serious
problem
or
recognize
a
contradiction
in
someone’s
reasoning,
I just
cannot
let it
go.
A few
years
ago,
while I
was
touring
Westminster
Abbey, a
historic
church
in
London
England,
a
troubling
issue
came to
light. I
discovered
that
Charles
Darwin,
the
famous
promoter
of
evolution,
was
buried
there.
As I had
read his
autobiography,
I knew
what he
believed
about
the
Christian
faith.
Why was
this man
buried
in a
church,
which
claimed
to be
Christian,
I
wondered?
This
seemed
ridiculous.
Was
there a
way to
find
out?
I asked
one of
the
guards
at the
door if
he had
an
answer
to the
question,
but he
just
shook
his head
and said
“no.”
However,
he
directed
me to
the
Westminster
Abbey
library.
I rang
the
buzzer
next to
a large
wooden
locked
door. A
voice
over an
intercom
asked me
what I
wanted
and then
told me
I could
come in.
As I
walked
through
the door
into the
room,
all I
could
see were
shelves
filled
with old
books.
It
looked
as if no
one was
around.
Finally,
a man
appeared
from a
second
floor
balcony
and
invited
me to
come
upstairs.
When I
asked if
he could
tell me
why
Charles
Darwin
was
buried
in the
Abbey,
he went
to a
shelf,
picked
up a
book
called
The
Survival
of
Charles
Darwin
by
Ronald
W.
Clark,
and
turned
to page
196.
As I had
expected,
documentation
in this
book
revealed
Darwin
had not
been
buried
in
Westminster
Abbey
because
of his
great
love for
Jesus
Christ.
Following
his
death,
which
occurred
April
19,
1882,
his
family
planned
to bury
him in
the
cemetery
at Downe
where he
lived.[1]
But on
April
21,
twenty
members
of
Parliament,
including
Henry
Campbell
Bannerman,
the
future
prime
minister
of
England,
wrote
the Dean
of
Westminster,
Dr.
George
Granville
Bradley
and
stated
the
following:
“We hope
you will
not
think we
are
taking
the
liberty
if we
venture
to
suggest
that it
would be
acceptable
to a
very
large
number
of our
fellow-countrymen
of all
classes
and
opinions,
that out
illustrious
countryman,
Mr.
Darwin,
should
be
buried
in
Westminster
Abbey.”
[2]
Of
course,
the
burial
was
a
very
controversial
event.
By
the
time
of
his
death,
every
thinking
person
knew
the
impact
Darwin’s
theory
had
on a
belief
in
God,
the
fall
of
man,
and
the
need
for
a
Redeemer.
Darwin,
himself,
would
have
never
consented
to
being
buried
in
Westminster
Abby.
He
had
written
in
his
autobiography
that
believing
in
Jesus
Christ
was
a
“damnable
doctrine.”
Although
Charles
Darwin
may
have
been
considered
by
the
political
leaders
of
his
day
to
be
an
“illustrious
countryman,”
by
biblical
standards,
he
was
certainly
no
“saint.”
While
many
of
the
vaults
within
the
Abbey
are
inscribed
with
Scripture,
the
slab
over
Darwin’s
tomb
has
only
his
name,
date
of
birth,
and
date
of
death.
Perhaps
it
would
be
appropriate
to
add
an
additional
statement:
“Here
lies
Charles
Darwin.
Billions
of
people
have
rejected
the
Creator
because
of
his
contribution
to
society.
His
God
was
evolution.
Have
you
accepted
his
faith?”
I am
Roger
Oakland.
This
has
been
a
biblical
perspective
to
help
understand
the
times.
[1]
Ronald W. Clarke,
The Survival of Charles Darwin: A Biography of a Man and an Idea, London, 1985, page 197
