[tang-soo]

This text is from the final chapter of Darwin's 'Origin of Species' Notice even Darwin referred to the Creator with a capital 'C'...

There is grandeur in this view of life with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms, most beautiful and most wonderful, have been and are being evolved.

Now for the interesting part. A link reported by Google can be found here under the heading 'knowledge matters' is found the following ...

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

Notice the difference? The phrase 'by the Creator' has been removed! Upon further investigation I have found that the version with 'Creator' as the source was added by Darwin during a subsequent edition. I think the choice of the version used to quote could indicate which side one happens to lie. I would think the honest person would choose the latest edition or at least footnote the other version.

The bottom line ... I have found that websites that promotes evolution quotes from the earlier edition. Why would an academic "effort" not use the latest edition which one would presume would be more up to date, have corrections update, more evidence ...? hmmm?

[VadeRetro]

The Sixth Edition (Darwin's last) is generally regarded as definitive. It's the one in the Great Books of the Western World Britannica compilation my Dad bought for us kids and himself back in the 60s. But the first edition is historically important as the bombshell that rocked the world in 1859 so it gets quoted a lot too. It can come down to whether you're talking about what Darwin was saying after a few go-arounds with his critics or what he said in his opening salvo.

[Renfield]

I suspect Bishop Wilberforce's arguments impelled him to add that phrase in the later edition.