Recently, while doing some research on Charles Darwin, I was surprised to discover that one of the purposes motivating his voyage on the USS Beagle was to promote Christianity.

The captain of the USS Beagle was a devout Christian who wanted to see Christianity spread to all parts. He used his voyages to survey foreign lands and to spread the Gospel. On his first trip to South America, he had picked up three natives from Tierra del Fuego (the very southern tip of South America) to educate in England. On this second trip, with Darwin on board, he intended to return these individuals to their native land along with a missionary. The captain’s first choice, a local pastor, declined to go, since he had just married. Darwin had been studying for the ministry, albeit half-heartedly. Captain Fitzroy must have considered that Darwin would be a suitable missionary to aid in the purposes of his voyage.

However, not only was Darwin not a missionary to spread the Gospel, but he turned this trip into the catalyst of a theory and philosophy that has proved a fertile spawning ground for a wide variety of anti-theistic sentiments and movements.

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Darwinism and evolution provided philosophical underpinning for oppressive tyrannies such Nazism and communism; and of course, these are underlying premises for secular humanism. And, the promoting of evolution in America’s schools has been a contributing factor for many young people deserting their faith for the allures of amorality.

I found this thought quite troubling, and I asked God what was to be learned from this? Did Fitzroy not listen to You? Was Darwin being given the opportunity to solidify his faith and serve You?

I began thinking about the game of chess when a thought came to me: What if Darwin’s voyage was in effect, a “queen’s gambit”?

Chess players will know that the queen’s gambit is a strategy of setting up the queen to be taken by the other side. Since the queen is the most valuable piece after the king, it is not a piece you give up easily. However, when the queen’s gambit is set up, and a player sacrifices his queen to his opponent, he has just won the game because in the next move he will put his opponent in checkmate. End of game.

The modern scientific endeavor, deriving from Christian foundations, by hijacked by Darwinian and evolutionary thinkers, has produced a wealth of discoveries and information which, rather than support the evolutionary view, actually provide evidence for Intelligent Design. Scientists like Stephen Meyer, Michael Behe, and others continue to take the findings of evolutionary science and demonstrate how they support the argument for creation by design.

I can’t help but wonder if God used Darwin’s trip and subsequent theory to set proponents of antitheistic worldviews for checkmate . After all, the Bible explains how Satan’s wiliest strategies to thwart God’s plans only served to advance them. Satan riled up men to hate Jesus so they would kill Him, only to realize when they did, that was God’s plan for salvation all along.

In spite of circumstances and situations that we may not understand, God is in always control of the affairs of men. We do not need to fit the Word of God into man’s wisdom, but instead, we must remain steadfast and judge man’s wisdom by the revealed Word. Evolution cannot succeed in its attempt to shove God out of the picture, and set science (or man) up as a god. For the more we learn through science – even evolutionary science – the more we see God’s signature of design everywhere.

For more insight to this subject, get the book, Signature in the Cell, by Stephen Meyer, from our online store. Or read the article, “Argument from Design,” by Peter Kreeft.