Actually, Darwin was not the one who first proposed the theory of evolution. Before he came along, scientists in general accepted evolution as an obvious fact based on simple observations. They saw no conflict between evolution and the existence of God.

What Darwin contributed to the theory was natural selection and this part left very little left for God to do. From that point on there was a perceived conflict between the theory of evolution and the existence of God which, as John Hardly points out, is not actually necessary.

Bev and Jerry