Natural theology and natural selection: Charles Darwin and Asa Grey

The creation of the Darwinian theory of biological evolution was accompanied by significant theological discussions that were directly related to the question of the relationship between science and theology. Charles Darwin himself was far from an atheistic view of the world, although at the end of his life he did not recognize himself as a believing Christian. One of his colleagues - and the main proponent of the theory of evolution on the American continent - was Harvard botanist Asa Gray. Being a Calvinist and accepting the Nicene Creed, Gray was simultaneously a supporter of the theory of biological evolution, and did not see any contradictions between it and Christian theology, insisting on the compatibility of this theory with both atheistic and theistic doctrine. According to Gray, the scientific method is limited to the study of the mechanisms of development of the Universe (and, in particular, the organic world), but does not say anything about the sources of the laws underlying this development. The existence of intelligent design is not denied and cannot be denied by evolution. The proof of purpose is in the results, not the methods. Gray pointed out that natural selection plays only a controlling role, limiting the variety of changes caused by internal causes in response to external environmental challenges. What are the mechanisms of these internal changes? It was not known at the time of Gray, and only the genetics of the 20th century, built on molecular biology data, came to understand the informational mechanisms of functioning of living organisms and genetic mutations that cause the corresponding phenotype changes.