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

[bear-left.livejournal.com]

I can barely express how exasperating it was to teach at UGA, & cover the Scopes Monkey Trial... and to have to figure out how to teach this material to students who fundamentally rejected the basic principle of evolution.

[inbhirnis.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

I guess it would be up to them to make a compelling argument to counter the FACTS OF THE TRIAL!

Good luck to them.

[tilia-tomentosa.livejournal.com]

I had to google the Scopes Monkey Trial. And this happened in the 20th century?!? I admit that it's difficult for me to understand the whole thing, legally and otherwise.

Excuse me (I live in a totally different culture), what was the problem of your students? The idea that THEY had evolved from a lower form of life or the idea that there was any evolution AT ALL or what?

[bear-left.livejournal.com]

Scary as it is that happened within the past century, it's way more scary that even today, there's a movement to teach "intelligent design" in high schools as a theory comparable to evolution.

You ask a very good question -- I think the answer is in part both of those. There are many religious people in this country who combine faith & reason judiciously -- and many who abandon reason for foolish, fearful superstition, and who insist on a literal reading of the Bible (as if it was written in English!)

[tilia-tomentosa.livejournal.com]

They probably don't know how tricky "literal" reading of something written in a dead language is. :) And of course even the "original" of at least the Old Testament probably wasn't that original - who knows how many oral "editions" there were before it was written down.

I know even non-religious people who feel uncomfortable with the idea of being closely related to the chimpanzees and the other apes. It is humbling, isn't it? But it does promote a higher ecological consciousness. I feel quite comfortable with the idea of being an intelligent ape, but I am more or less a biologist, which helps.

The phrase "intelligent design" suddenly reminded me that Terry Pratchett has a God of Evolution in one of his books - I think it is The Fifth Continent. :)

By the way, what does FSM mean?

[bear-left.livejournal.com]

It's also hard to overestimage the hubris of Americans who treat, say, Jesus as an American nationalist.

FSM? The Flying Spaghetti Monster hasn't made it to Bulgaria yet, eh? This is such a wonderful rebuke to the "intelligent design" people.

[tilia-tomentosa.livejournal.com]

No, it hasn't.

LOL

[shirtlifterbear.livejournal.com]

"Have you been touched by His Noodly Appendage?"

It's SUCH a slap in the face of Kansas Christian Crazies!

[tilia-tomentosa.livejournal.com]

I don't have enough imagination to imagine their culture shock! LOL

[tilia-tomentosa.livejournal.com]

P.S. But I think it would be even better if it was HER Noodly Appendage! LMAO