খ্ৰীষ্টান ধৰ্মত বিশ্বাসী আৰু ডাৰউইনৰ বিৱৰ্তনবাদৰ প্ৰাৰম্ভিক সমৰ্থনকাৰীসকলৰ ভিতৰত অন্যতম, হাৰ্ভাৰ্ডৰ উদ্ভিদবিজ্ঞানী এছা গ্ৰেয়ে (Asa Gray) ১৮৬৮ চনত মন্তব্য আগবঢ়াইছিল যে— ইংলেণ্ডৰ অধিকাংশ ডাৰউইনবাদীয়েই "ইংৰাজ-বস্তুবাদী-যোগাত্মক চিন্তা" এটাৰে সমৃদ্ধ ("the English-materialistic-positivistic line of thought") ডাৰউইনৰ আন এজন সমৰ্থনকাৰী থ'মাছ হাক্সলি আছিল প্ৰকাশ্য সংশয়বাদী, যাৰ বিষয়ে তেওঁৰ জীৱনীকাৰ জেনেট ব্ৰাউনে এইদৰে ব্যাখ্যা আগবঢ়াইছে:
Huxley was rampaging on miracles and the existence of the soul. A few months later, he was to coin the word "agnostic" to describe his own position as neither a believer nor a disbeliever, but one who considered himself free to inquire rationally into the basis of knowledge, a philosopher of pure reason [...] The term fitted him well [...] and it caught the attention of the other free thinking, rational doubters in Huxley's ambit, and came to signify a particularly active form of scientific rationalism during the final decades of the 19th century. [...] In his hands, agnosticism became as doctrinaire as anything else--a religion of skepticism. Huxley used it as a creed that would place him on a higher moral plane than even bishops and archbishops. All the evidence would nevertheless suggest that Huxley was sincere in his rejection of the charge of outright atheism against himself. He refused to be "a liar". To inquire rigorously into the spiritual domain, he asserted, was a more elevated undertaking than slavishly to believe or disbelieve. "A deep sense of religion is compatible with the entire absence of theology," he had told [Anglican clergyman] Charles Kingsley back in 1860. "Pope Huxley", the [magazine] "Spectator" dubbed him. The label stuck." —Janet Browne
চাৰিজন প্ৰবক্তা (The Four Horsemen)
ইতিবৃত্ত
প্ৰাৰম্ভিক ইতিহাস
আৰু এগৰাকী প্ৰবক্তা (Plus One Horse-Woman)