Thomas Edison — "I am not a believer in the theory of evolution. I believe in the theory of creat…"
I am not a believer in the theory of evolution. I believe in the theory of creation. I believe that God created the world and everything in it.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Thomas Edison
"Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you failure."
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease."
"I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others. I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to try and invent it."
"I have always been a great admirer of women. I think they are the most wonderful creatures on earth."
"So far as the religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake … Religion is all bunk."
Verification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
The speaker rejects the scientific explanation that life developed gradually through natural processes over millions of years. Instead, they affirm a religious view that a divine being deliberately made the universe and all living things. It is a direct statement of faith placing intentional design above naturalistic origins, declaring personal conviction rather than offering evidence or argument against evolutionary science.
Relevance to Thomas Edison
Edison was famously skeptical of organized religion and often labeled an agnostic or freethinker, making this attributed statement surprising. Though a relentless empirical inventor who trusted experiment over dogma, Edison spoke publicly about believing in a Supreme Intelligence behind nature's design. His work with electricity, sound recording, and motion pictures gave him intimate appreciation for complex order, which he sometimes credited to a creator rather than blind chance.
The era
Edison lived from 1847 to 1931, spanning the fierce post-Darwin debates over evolution. The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 pitted creationism against evolutionary biology in American classrooms. Public intellectuals were pressured to take sides as fundamentalism surged alongside industrial modernity. Edison's era also saw rising secularism among scientists, so any prominent inventor's remarks on creation versus evolution carried weight in newspapers and fueled cultural arguments about faith and progress.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].