Lincoln and religion

[Rob Wick]

Just dropped in to say hello and to point out there is a world of difference between Social Darwinism, which is more a product of the philosophy of Herbert Spencer among others, and evolutionary biology as proposed by Darwin. Indeed, Darwin rejected the notion of "survival of the fittest" when it came to society.

Also, Lincoln was familiar with Darwin's work, as Herndon had ordered On the Origin of Species when it came out in 1859. He urged Lincoln to read it, and while Lincoln looked over it he didn't finish it. That isn't to say, however, that the question of evolution didn't interest him. Lincoln did read a book called Vestiges on the Natural History of Creation, which was published anonymously in 1844. It's author eventually was revealed as a man named Robert Chambers

While many people see Chambers's book as an early paean to evolution, and therefore dismiss it and its effect on Lincoln, William E. Barton believed it was more of a religious tract and wrote an entire chapter on it in The Soul of Abraham Lincoln, defending Lincoln's reading of it.

Best
Rob