Originally posted by JohnR7
There does seem to be a Lady Hope, and they do feel that she spent some time with Darwin right before he died. But no one has been able to prove or disprove her story.
Just as there is not one shread of evidence to support Darwin's theory of evolution beyond micro-evolutionary changes within a species. There also does not seem to be any evidence to support Lady Hopes claim that Darwin returned to christianity late in life.
Darwin was said to be a christian up to the age of 40 and he had very serious thoughts of becoming a country pastor. But the reason was so that he could support himself to do research work. As it turned out, he had enough money to support himself and gave up on his idea of being a pastor.
From AIG:
Darwins biographer, Dr James Moore, lecturer in the history of science and technology at The Open University in the UK, has spent 20 years researching the data over three continents. He produced a 218-page book examining what he calls the Darwin legend.7 He says there was a Lady Hope. Born Elizabeth Reid Cotton in 1842, she married a widower, retired Admiral Sir James Hope, in 1877. She engaged in tent evangelism and in visiting the elderly and sick in Kent in the 1880s, and died of cancer in Sydney, Australia, in 1922, where her tomb may be seen to this day.8
Moore concludes that Lady Hope probably did visit Charles between Wednesday, September 28 and Sunday, October 2, 1881, almost certainly when Francis and Henrietta were absent, but his wife, Emma, probably was present.9 He describes Lady Hope as a skilled raconteur, able to summon up poignant scenes and conversations, and embroider them with sentimental spirituality.10 He points out that her published story contained some authentic details as to time and place, but also factual inaccuracies Charles was not bedridden six months before he died, and the summer house was far too small to accommodate 30 people. The most important aspect of the story, however, is that it does not say that Charles either renounced evolution or embraced Christianity. He merely is said to have expressed concern over the fate of his youthful speculations and to have spoken in favour of a few peoples attending a religious meeting. The alleged recantation/ conversion are embellishments that others have either read into the story or made up for themselves. Moore calls such doings holy fabrication!
It should be noted that for most of her married life Emma was deeply pained by the irreligious nature of Charless views, and would have been strongly motivated to have corroborated any story of a genuine conversion, if such had occurred. She never did.
It therefore appears that Darwin did not recant, and it is a pity that to this day the Lady Hope story occasionally appears in tracts published and given out by well-meaning people.
