Lincoln's Christianity by Michael Burkhimer

[maharba]

There are some parallels between Charles Darwin & wife Emma (Wedgwood) and Abraham Lincoln & wife Mary Todd. Both wives were Christians, both husbands were not. There is as much hemming and hawing about 'Darwins religion' as there is with Lincoln. Clearly, both were adamant atheists. I think Lincoln was almost a lifetime atheist --I mean from earliest age. While Darwin, evolved into an atheist from about age 35 and stayed that way too. Darwin's wife Emma was not given to histrionics or hysterics, she was much more of a comforter than Mary Todd ever was. Her father Josiah Wedgwood (of fine pottery fame) settled a sizeable amount on her, and Darwin's (atheist) father Robert also was a wealthy Doctor and financially generous to Charles Darwin and his large family. There was no need for, and Darwin never worked a day in his life. Darwin came to his belief in atheism from contact with academics in his attempts first to become a doctor, and then getting a (divinity) degree. Supposedly, 'Darwins genius at assessing the natural world' provoked him into embracing atheism. I think that when Lincoln came on to New Salem and fell into bad company is when he began to cement and bolster, with some semblance of erudition and philosophy, his belief in atheism. Both Darwin and Lincoln accepted a teleological point of view, but when Darwin understood fully what he was putting into his published works, he disavowed teleology. Because it implies an 'intellect, a plan on to a certain end, Intelligent Design', and which any self-respecting atheist must deny. Lincoln probably did not understand that teleology undercut the very premise of his atheism. If people and events 'are fated towards a certain ending', then there is a greater Hand, a Design at work which must have come from a metaphysical intellect. Both Mary and Emma worried about the eternal fate of their husbands. And it bothered Darwin far more than it did Lincoln, so that he concealed the full measure of his atheism from wife Emma for most of his life.