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Darwin's Deathbed Recantation

Statement

Picture of Darwin There is a story that Charles Darwin (1809-1882), English naturalist and developer of the theories of evolution through natural and sexual selection, recanted his life's work and agnosticism and accepted Christianity on his deathbed. It has been circulating through evangelical publications and broadcasts for many years. The story originated with Lady Hope (a.k.a. Elizabeth Reid Cotton, widow of Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Hope), an evangelist in Darwin's neighborhood of Downe, England. She said in a 1915 speech to a Moody evangelical school in East Northfield, Ma., that on his deathbed Darwin had been reading the Epistle to the Hebrews. Supposedly, he wished for singing and worship at his home, regretted that his evolutionary "speculations" were taken so seriously and had caused such evil, and that he accepted the Christian scheme of "salvation." The story was printed in the Boston Watchman Examiner and has been in circulation ever since.

The evidence shows that the story is not true. Lady Hope was not present at the deathbed of Darwin. The multiple independent accounts of his death, written by those who were there, make no mention of it. His children who were there at his death wrote articles and letters that specifically refuted the recantation and conversion story. Lady Hope did show such detailed knowledge of Darwin's home and estate that she must have visited Darwin at some time late in his life, though not at his deathbed. Darwin himself was disturbed with the misuses "Social Darwinism" made of his theories. He thought that Christianity was good for common people, though not for himself and other educated men. Darwin was revising his theories in the latter part of his life, to take new information into account, though he did not doubt that evolution had occurred, only how it had happened. Lady Hope probably heard all of this in a visit to Darwin late in his life, and conflated it imaginatively into a deathbed recantation!

Sources

The Lady Hope Story: A Widespread Falsehood
Did Darwin Recant? - From Answers in Genesis, a creationist organization based in Cincinnati.
Clark, Ronald W. The Survival of Charles Darwin. New York: Avon, 1984, 214-217, 525
Desmond, A., et al. Darwin: the Life of a Tormented Evolutionist (New York: Warner Books/Norton, 1991), pp. 485-663
Tom McIver, "Ancient Tales and Space-Age Myths of Creationist Evangelism." Skeptical Inquirer 10 (3) 266-276"
Moore, James The Darwin Legend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994), pp. 11-168
The Lady Hope Story (http://www.ediacara.org/hope.html)