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At 22:06 06/01/2007, Karen Reeds wrote:

>For anyone who is thinking about Darwin, Creation, evolution, 
>religion, and related issues, Alfred Russell Wallace's obituary on 
>Darwin is  worth reading in full.

Alfred Russell Wallace's obituary on Darwin was tricky to find on the 
Darwin-Online website. It is here 
http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=A106&viewtype=side&pageseq=1

While searching, I stumbled across Wallace's own obituary. This is an 
interview/obituary by W. B. Northrop printed in the 22 November 1913 
edition of the New York magazine The Outlook: 
http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/wallace/S753.htm

Looking back at such writings proves that Darwinism's early 
interaction with religion was far more complex than the polarised, 
black-and-white, modern myth.

Wallace, whose idea of a good night out was to attend a spiritualist 
seance, came within an inch of being acclaimed as the first 
discoverer of evolution by natural selection. We very, very nearly 
had 'Wallace-ism' not Darwinism. He said:

"...most persons think Darwin was an atheist, but they do not 
understand his work..."
:
"I am one who believes there is something in man that is infinite and 
which differs in nature as well as in degree from anything which is 
seen in the lower animals."
:
"To call the spiritual nature of man a 'by-product,' developed by us 
in our struggle for existence, is a joke too big for this little 
world. It was on this very point that I differed from Darwin, and it 
is on these points that I cannot meet the modern materialists who say 
that man is merely an animal and there is nothing for him beyond the grave."
:
"The world has been moved far more by spiritual forces than by 
material and selfish ones. Neither Darwin nor Moses has yet conquered 
mankind. Life, with its mysteries of consciousness and personality, 
is still the dumping-ground of theories and dreams."


[log in to unmask] * http://www.interactives.co.uk
*
Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
*
Ian Russell 

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