In On The Origin of Species Charles Darwin showed how the character of the present has been formed by the events of the past. Others before him had had the idea of descent with modification, but Darwin, by identifying the process of natural selection, was able to show how natural processes could bring about the remarkable adaptation of living forms to survival in their environment. The traditional arguments of natural theology, that this aptness required the direct intervention of a divine Designer, thereby lost their force.
John Polkinghorne (Thu,) studied this question.