Church owes Darwin apology over evolution, says senior AnglicanChurch of England commissions series of introspective online articles ahead of 200th anniversary of naturalist's birth
Charles Darwin lost his Christian faith in the 1830s, before writing his seminal On the Origin of Species. Photograph: Corbis
The Church of England owes Charles Darwin an apology for misunderstanding his theory of evolution and making errors over its reaction to it, a senior clergyman said today.
In a bid to recognise its faults in the run up to next year's 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, the church has launched a series of articles on its website.
An essay by the Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, the church's head of public affairs, called Good Religion Needs Good Science directly addresses Darwin. It concludes: "We try to practise the old virtues of 'faith seeking understanding' and hope that makes some amends. But the struggle for your reputation is not over yet, and the problem is not just your religious opponents but those who falsely claim you in support of their own interests.
"Good religion needs to work constructively with good science – and I dare to suggest that the opposite may be true as well."
Next year also marks 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species, in which Darwin outlined the theory of natural selection. This anniversary, the church says, presents an opportunity "to look back on the relationship between Darwin, his supporters and the Christian church".
Brown acknowledges that "the trouble with homo sapiens is that we are only human".
He writes: "People, and institutions, make mistakes and Christian people and churches are no exception. When a big new idea emerges which changes the way people look at the world, it's easy to feel that every old idea, every certainty, is under attack and then to do battle against the new insights.
"The church made that mistake with Galileo's astronomy, and has since realised its error. Some church people did it again in the 1860s with Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. So it is important to think again about Darwin's impact on religious thinking, then and now – and the bicentenary of Darwin's birth in 1809 is a good time to do so.
"It is hard to avoid the thought that the reaction against Darwin was largely based on what we would now call the 'yuk factor' - an emotional not an intellectual response - when he proposed a lineage from apes to humans."
On the site, the church provides a brief history of Darwin as well as sections on Darwin and the church and Darwin and faith.
Darwin lost his Christian faith in the 1830s and wrote: "I found it more and more difficult, with free scope given to my imagination, to invent evidence which would suffice to convince me. Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete."
A Church of England spokesman said Brown's piece was a "personal view" of Darwin's contribution to science and did not amount to an official apology by the church.
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