Darwin's Predictions
The mechanism—whatever it is—is natural, not supernatural.
Darwin held off on publishing his theory for 20 years, until forced to by fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who had independently come up with the same idea. One of the reasons for Darwin's delay was he knew what a shock his theory would represent to Christians, including his beloved wife Emma, who believed that God had created all living things, whole and independent of all others. Darwin didn't hold this view. His friend, the biologist T. H. Huxley, agreed. "As a natural process of the same character as the development of a tree from its seed, or of a fowl from its egg," Huxley wrote, "evolution excludes creation and all other kinds of supernatural intervention." Of course, many people around the world still believe in a divine instrument of creation.