Birthday boys

By Jeff Long

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin probably were never in the same room. Both of these men, one the 16th U.S. president, the other, creator of the theory of evolution, were born on the same day in 1809. Their common natal date is today, Feb. 12.

Darwin was world famous before Lincoln. The former's landmark work, "On the Origin of the Species," was published to notable acclaim (and sales) in November 1859. Lincoln would be elected president a year later.

I have read several biographies of Lincoln. Garry Wills' treatment of the career of the one-time log-splitter is one that sticks out in my mind. Wills' description of the truly awful and unsanitary conditions at the site of a famous Civil War battlefield where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address is difficult to get out of the mind.

Lincoln was not the main speaker that day. In fact, his remarks were so short, just 272 words delivered in less than three minutes, that the photographers that day only had time to catch him descending from the platform after he finished his address. In a time when political oratory often exceeded the one-hour range, Mr. Lincoln's brief speech, perhaps the most famous in U.S. history, stands out for its sheer brevity.

I have Darwin's famous book but haven't read much of it yet. It's on my bucket list for this spring.

Darwin's main themes of natural selection and evolution are praised or reviled depending on your point of view. To some readers offended by his writings, Darwin is a heretic. Others suggest natural selection is an instrument of God's design. Interestingly, despite the controversy of his work, Darwin is buried at Westminster Abbey in London.

As to Darwin's religious views, as a young man he intended on becoming an Anglican clergyman. By the time he reached his 40s, while Darwin was involved in the service ministries of his local parish and counted the pastor there as a friend, he avoided worship. While his family attended services, Darwin would often take a walk. Upon reaching age 70, he wrote the following to a friend: "I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God -- I think that generally ... an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind."

As for Abraham Lincoln, he pointedly avoided becoming a member of a local church during the Civil War. In a tale that may be apocryphal, he was scheduled to join a Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., on Easter Sunday in 1865. But he was dead by Easter, being fatally wounded on Good Friday.

According to Mark Noll, who wrote the book "The Puzzling Faith of Abraham Lincoln," the president had no use for religious creeds or statements of faith and had little use for formal theology. (As such, he would have been right at home in my current tradition, the Disciples of Christ.) The death of his son, Edward, in 1850 may have been influential in his religious views, but this is mere conjecture.

Lincoln and Darwin are unforgettable historical figures. Born the same day, they almost certainly did not meet. The currents of our lives often place us in waters others cannot enter. I imagine these two men, had fate so arranged, would have had a fascinating conversation about religious faith. I'd have liked to have been a fly on the wall to have heard those birthday boys having that conversation.