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Having rejected the Bible and God and the doctrine of eternal life, Darwin was left with no meaning in life and a bleak future in which man is doomed to perish in a dying universe.
“With respect to immortality, nothing shows me how strong and almost instinctive a belief it is, as the consideration of the view now held by most physicists, namely that the sun with all the planets will in time grow too cold for life, unless indeed some great body dashes into the sun and thus gives it fresh life.--Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress” (Autobiography, p. 92).
Before his death, Darwin professed “no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of a future existence with retribution and reward” (Desmond, Darwin, p. 636).
Interestingly, though, the last words of this man who had no belief in God were “Oh God, oh Lord God.” Every agnostic and every atheist believes in God in his heart of hearts.
Darwin was buried in Westminster Abbey with a full-blown Anglican funeral. The “elders of science, State, and Church, the nobility of birth and talent” were in attendance. It was called “the greatest gathering of intellect that was ever brought together in our country.”
The Darwins and Wedgewoods gathered in the Jerusalem Chamber, where one of the committees had met to work on the King James Bible and where, more recently, the English Revised Version committee led by Westcott and Hort had deliberated.
Among his pall bearers were the old X-Clubbers Huxley and Hooker and New Ager Alfred Wallace.
The coffin was draped in black velvet and covered with white flowers. Choristers sang “I am the resurrection.” A special hymn composed for the occasion was taken from the book of Proverbs. Incongruously, it began, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and getting understanding,” and ended with, “He ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”
As the coffin was lowered into the grave, the choristers sang, “His body is buried in peace, but his name liveth evermore.”
Darwin’s Deification
Darwin was buried in Westminster Abbey. Three years after his death, a life-sized statue was erected in the most prominent place in the new Natural History Museum. The Times called it “The Temple of Nature,” and Pope Huxley presided over the dedication ceremony.
At some point in the 20th century, the statue was moved to another area of the museum, but on the 100th anniversary of Darwin’s death, it was restored to a place of prominence, where it remains today, looking for all the world like an idol enshrined in a temple.
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