Charles Darwin Quotes About Belief

Quotes about: Belief

• How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well as so many absurd religious beliefs, have originated, we do not know; nor how it is that they have become, in all quarters of the world, so deeply impressed on the minds of men; but it is worthy of remark that a belief constantly inculcated during the early years of life, while the brain is impressionable, appears to acquire almost the nature of an instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is followed independently of reason.

  Charles Darwin

  Religious, Men, Essence

  Charles Darwin (1871). “The Descent of man”, p.95

• A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of a 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

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Rewards, Belief

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.434, Broadview Press

• The assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for his existence. But this is a rash argument, as we should thus be compelled to believe in the existence of many cruel and malignant spirits, only a little more powerful than man; for the belief in them is far more general than in a beneficent deity.

  Charles Darwin

  Powerful, Believe, Men

  Charles Darwin (2015). “The Descent of Man: Human Sexuality”, p.542, 谷月社

• 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 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.

  Charles Darwin

  Dog, Believe, Science

  The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II C. Darwin to Asa Gray May 22nd [1860] (p. 105)

• Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the only distinction between species and well-marked varieties is, that the latter are known, or believed to be connected at the present day by intermediate gradations whereas species were formerly thus connected.

  Charles Darwin

  Science, Belief, Latter

  Charles Darwin (1988). “The Works of Charles Darwin, Volume 16: The Origin of Species, 1876”, p.443, NYU Press

• It may be conceit, but I believe the subject will interest the public, and I am sure that the views are original.

  Charles Darwin

  Believe, Science, Views

  Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin (1958). “Autobiography and Selected Letters”, p.211, Courier Corporation

• Mr. J.S. Mill speaks, in his celebrated work, "Utilitarianism," of the social feelings as a "powerful natural sentiment," and as "the natural basis of sentiment for utilitarian morality," but on the previous page he says, "if, as is my own belief, the moral feelings are not innate, but acquired, they are not for that reason less natural." It is with hesitation that I venture to differ from so profound a thinker, but it can hardly be disputed that the social feelings are instinctive or innate in the lower animals; and why should they not be so in man?

  Charles Darwin

  Powerful, Men, Animal

  Charles Darwin (1872). “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.68

• I had gradually come, by this time [1839-01], to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow as a sign, etc., etc. and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian.

  Charles Darwin

  Book, Tyrants, Rainbow

• I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument for his existence. The idea of a universal and beneficent Creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-continued culture.

  Charles Darwin

  Men, Ideas, Long

  Charles Darwin (1871). “The Descent of Man: And Selection in Relation to Sex”, p.395

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