Celebrating Darwin's 200th

[inbhirnis]

NPR today has a good bit on the commemorations of Darwin's 200th birthday in the UK. Lots of documentaries on the telly, special coins minted, etc. Apart from NPR joining in with a series of pieces over the last few weeks, not a peep from the rest of the media. And I think this quote from NPR's piece today says it all: (you can listen to or read it here)

"In other words, Darwin is not the controversial figure in the United Kingdom that he continues to be in the United States. Bloomfield says the reason for this is science has proved Darwin right."

Pretty sad. Why are so many US folk freaked out by this? 'All' Darwin opined about was how things evolved, but (as far as I know) didn't tackle creation. So, it seems to me that religious folk can still hold to their creation myths at the same time as accepting that there is a hell of a lot of evidence that evolution has occurred. I guess that's too nuanced a position for the fundies, plus the inescapable conclusion is that we too have evolved, and that will never be accepted by them.

Comments

[inbhirnis.livejournal.com]

Yeah - but Tony knew that in Britain it would be political suicide to try and insert his religious beliefs into national politics (the reverse is true here, I feel at times). He waited until he was out of office to convert to Catholicism (another stupid remnant of the UK having an 'established church') and then started talking about his faith big time - most recently at a US "Prayer Breakfast" (not sure what that is - 'Oh Jesus, please pass the pancakes'?!).

And that's fair enough. People should be free to believe whatever creation story they want. But, it should not be allowed to be inserted into the science curriculum (social/religious studies - fine), nor into the political sphere. When I was back home, I caught a bit of a Sunday morning religious program that was taking about morality, and they also had Dawkins on to make the rather basic point that being religious, particularly Christian, does not give you a monopoly on morality. Again, something you'd never see on the telly here.

[shirtlifterbear.livejournal.com]

A prayer breakfast is a business meeting that has an invocation by an illegally lobbying minister at the beginning.

I used to have to attend at least two a week in DC.

I'm enjoying the Darwin anniversary, but the neatest thing I saw about it?

Abraham Lincoln was born on the exact same day.