Last Words of Famous People.

A huge compilation of famous last words. Here are Darwin's last words:

"I am not the least afraid to die."

Charles Darwin's study of the diversity of animal species led him to conclude that living things evolve from a process of natural selection. In 1859, following the publication of his book, On the Origin of Species, he and his work were attacked by religious fundamentalists who realized the British naturalist's theory dealt a fatal blow to the Christian belief in literal biblical creation. Twelve years later, when he published The Descent of Man and applied his theory to humans, the assault intensified. In 1882, Darwin died peacefully in bed after speaking with his son.

In 1985, Jimmy Swaggart, an American televangelist, told his enthralled listeners that Darwin had a change of heart on his deathbed, renounced his scientific works, and asked for a Bible so that he could learn to love Jesus. Apparently this tale stems from a lie told by the wife of Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Hope to seminary students in 1882. She claimed that she was with Darwin at the end and that he professed "How I wish I had not expressed my theory of evolution as I have done!" Further, she added that he begged her to gather an audience so he could "speak to them of Christ Jesus and His salvation. . . ." Darwin's daughter soon debunked this fabrication, reporting that "Lady Hope was not present during his last illness, or any illness. I believe he never even saw her, but in any case she had no influence over him in any department of thought or belief. He never recanted any of his scientific views, either then or earlier. . . . The whole story has no foundation whatever."

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