"Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests, undefaced by the hand of man, whether those of Brazil, where the powers of life are predominant, or those of Tierra del Fuego, where death & decay prevail. Both are temples filled with the varied productions of the God of Nature: No one can stand unmoved in these solitudes, without feeling that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body."
- Charles Darwin, September 1836, at the end of his journey to South America
Krista Tippett writes in her book "Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters-- and How to Talk About It, "Darwin reflected on all he had seen with words that defy the rift that his scientific conclusions would set in motion. ... Darwin forced human beings to look at the inherent struggle of life head-on, not as we wish it to be, but as it is in all its complexity, brutality, and mystery. 'He brings you up short,' Moore [a Darwin biographer] says, 'bang against the world as it really is in his vision, not the world that we would like it to be, as if there hadn't been a fall into sin in the Garden of Eden.'"
This is a completely new side of Charles Darwin to me. He's always been demonized and caricatured. But as we all should instinctively grasp, he was just as complex as anyone. We should all pull up short and proceed both cautiously and thoughtfully when anyone or any thing is blanketed absolutely good or evil, 100% right or wrong.
