Born this day in 1809. Deserves a toast imo.
Darwin! What a brave man. He believed in God, but was keen observer. So he made some allowances in the dogma, but still believed. Publishing his findings caused him a lot of personal angst, but he published them anyway without having any knowledge of DNA and while much of the fossil record hadn't even been discovered. He just had a bunch of observations that were inescapable plus a vague theory, the mechanics of which were still unknown. At the time, he could have been wrong. But the simple observations could not be ignored. He just happened to get it right, and the theory, an undeniable fact we have today was hammered out by others. He (and a few others of the time) just got others looking in the right direction, but at great personal cost.
I vote for Feb 12th to be a holiday.
Quote from: josephpalazzo on February 12, 2016, 11:17:55 AM
I vote for Feb 12th to be a holiday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Day
QuoteDarwin Day Program and Darwin Day Celebration[edit]
In the late 1990s, two Darwin enthusiasts, Amanda Chesworth and Robert Stephens, co-founded an unofficial effort to promote Darwin Day. In 2001, Chesworth moved to New Mexico and incorporated the "Darwin Day Program".[19] Stephens became chairman of the board and President of this nonprofit corporation with Massimo Pigliucci as Vice-President and Amanda Chesworth as member of the Board, Secretary, and Executive Director. Stephens presented the objectives of the organisation in an article titled "Darwin Day An International Celebration."[20]
In 2002, Chesworth compiled and edited a substantial book entitled Darwin Day Collection One: the Single Best Idea, Ever.[21] The objectives of the book were to show the multidisciplinary reach of Charles Darwin and to meld academic work with popular culture.
In 2004, the New Mexico corporation was dissolved and all its assets assigned to the "Darwin Day Celebration", a non-profit organisation incorporated in California in 2004[22] by Dr. Robert Stephens and others[23] and the Mission Statement was expanded.[24]
Darwin Day Celebration redesigned the Web site, DarwinDay.org, from a static presentation of information about the Darwin Day Program to a combination of education about Darwin and the Darwin Day Celebration organisation, including automated registration and publication of planned and past celebratory Events and the automated registration of people who want to receive emailings or make public declaration of support for Darwin Day. The website is now operated by the International Darwin Day Foundation, an autonomous program of the American Humanist Association.
Agreed. The man did a lot more for humanity than several other people we celebrate, so he deserves the recognition.
Darwin is the devil! I bet he's burning in hell right now for making the Bible look foolish! To quote the Bible: "Thou shalt not make thy this Bibiliotecha look like thy donkey of fools."
Darwin was already agnostic, as a naturalist, when he came back on the Beagle ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHiozzRLq5Y
But I think that minimizing the human aspect ... does an injustice ... it is expropriation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVv6w6jrFwI
We might not take Christianity as seriously as early Victorians did.