Nearly 70 years ago, Jacques Barzun wrote, "You will find Darwin and Marx repeatedly coupled as the great pair whose conceptions revolutionized the modern world; as the mighty thinkers whose thoughts are now moving the beliefs of millions."

"By substituting Natural Selection for providence, the new science could solve a host of riddles arising in practical life, though by the same exchange, the new science had to become a religion," notes Barzun. "This necessity is what makes the Darwinian event of lasting importance in cultural history."

It is important to not underestimate the secularists' need to replace the true creation story with their own creation story. Richard Dawkins, one of the reigning high priests of secularism, has been quoted as saying that Darwin "made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist." Much earlier, Thomas Huxley, one of Darwin's chief apologists, stated "science and her methods, gave me a resting place independent of authority and tradition."

I am not a scientist, and not qualified to fully assess the Darwinian concept of evolution. But no one should be confused that Darwin understood with perfect clarity that Darwin, himself, in the words of Gertrude Himmelfarb, "preferred a morality independent of religion and untainted by the moral defects of Christianity." ("Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution")

Joseph A. Cannon is editor of the Deseret News.