Happy Darwin Year?!
By Delia Fuhrman
First Galileo freed the earth of the alleged burden of being the centre of the universe, and then Darwin freed manhood of the alleged burden of being the centre of the living world. The creator of the scientific theory that has had such a tremendous impact on our perception of the world would have been 200 years old if he were alive on his birthday this year on February 12, 2009.
Darwin most certainly did not have a clue that he was about to start one of the most important journeys in the history of science when he entered the HMS Beagle in 1830 - twenty-two years old, seasick and with little experience. In fact, he was more or less hired to keep the captain company on his cartography mission to South America. By frenetically collecting and describing everything there was to see on the five-year-long journey, he provided himself with scientific material for a lifetime. When he came back to England, the idea of evolution was already there, but he spent years interpreting the 2521 pages of notes, 1529 preserved species and 3907 artifacts of natural history and corresponding with almost all scientific eminences of the time. Finally, he published his work on the gradual, naturally selected change of species and origin of species in 1859. The first edition sold out on the very first day.
Though he did not mention the human race in his work, the link was drawn immediately, evoking an avalanche of controversy. Both society and the scientific community engaged in discussions over morality, theism and zoology over many years. Since findings in genetics provided molecular explanations, the theory of evolution has been accepted by virtually all scientists. However, not everyone is celebrating the bicentennial anniversary of Darwin’s birth. Conservative, often Christian, lobbyists seek to discredit the theory, and polls tell us they are doing their job well. About half of all Americans believe that God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years and evolutionary theory is taught to be wrong in several countries, one example is Poland.
What is proposed alternatively is known as Creationism. Creationism is the belief that present life on earth did not evolve at random but was created by a metaphysical entity and that its current complexity is unchanging. Creationists kept trying to propose their theory in society and especially in schools, but struggle with laws and the lack of scientific evidence to support their theory. However, in the beginning of the 1990’s the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture proposed the theory of intelligent design. Intelligent design avoids using religious terms and instead proposes creationism in a pseudoscientific manner. Have a look at it: http://www.intelligentdesign.org/. The intelligent design theory has been quite successful. Creationism experienced a revival and debates in several countries arose concerning whether or not to teach intelligent design.
When the debate hit Kansas, an American named Bobby Henderson was inspired by this
theory enough to write a letter to the Kansas School board in order to propose another theory that, in his eyes was worth being taught together with evolution and creation – “Pastafarianism”. He filled the question mark concerning the non-specified creator in the intelligent design theory with the “Flying Spaghetti monster”. His letter states: “I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was he who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by him.” For the whole letter and comprehensive analysis of Pastafarianism see: http://www.venganza.org/. It should be obvious that Pastafarianism is nothing but a spoof of intelligent design. Actually, the creationists’ websites could sometimes be easily mistaken for a joke. See: http://www.creationism.org/.
Darwin himself was not an atheist. He said: "I cannot pretend to throw the least light on such problems. The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble to us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic." No one knows when or if the debate is ever going to come to an end. In the scientific community, evolution is constantly applied, giving rise to various interesting theories in the cognitive, psychological, biological, and neurological disciplines.
By Delia Fuhrman
First Galileo freed the earth of the alleged burden of being the centre of the universe, and then Darwin freed manhood of the alleged burden of being the centre of the living world. The creator of the scientific theory that has had such a tremendous impact on our perception of the world would have been 200 years old if he were alive on his birthday this year on February 12, 2009.
Darwin most certainly did not have a clue that he was about to start one of the most important journeys in the history of science when he entered the HMS Beagle in 1830 - twenty-two years old, seasick and with little experience. In fact, he was more or less hired to keep the captain company on his cartography mission to South America. By frenetically collecting and describing everything there was to see on the five-year-long journey, he provided himself with scientific material for a lifetime. When he came back to England, the idea of evolution was already there, but he spent years interpreting the 2521 pages of notes, 1529 preserved species and 3907 artifacts of natural history and corresponding with almost all scientific eminences of the time. Finally, he published his work on the gradual, naturally selected change of species and origin of species in 1859. The first edition sold out on the very first day.
Though he did not mention the human race in his work, the link was drawn immediately, evoking an avalanche of controversy. Both society and the scientific community engaged in discussions over morality, theism and zoology over many years. Since findings in genetics provided molecular explanations, the theory of evolution has been accepted by virtually all scientists. However, not everyone is celebrating the bicentennial anniversary of Darwin’s birth. Conservative, often Christian, lobbyists seek to discredit the theory, and polls tell us they are doing their job well. About half of all Americans believe that God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years and evolutionary theory is taught to be wrong in several countries, one example is Poland.
What is proposed alternatively is known as Creationism. Creationism is the belief that present life on earth did not evolve at random but was created by a metaphysical entity and that its current complexity is unchanging. Creationists kept trying to propose their theory in society and especially in schools, but struggle with laws and the lack of scientific evidence to support their theory. However, in the beginning of the 1990’s the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture proposed the theory of intelligent design. Intelligent design avoids using religious terms and instead proposes creationism in a pseudoscientific manner. Have a look at it: http://www.intelligentdesign.org/. The intelligent design theory has been quite successful. Creationism experienced a revival and debates in several countries arose concerning whether or not to teach intelligent design.
When the debate hit Kansas, an American named Bobby Henderson was inspired by this
theory enough to write a letter to the Kansas School board in order to propose another theory that, in his eyes was worth being taught together with evolution and creation – “Pastafarianism”. He filled the question mark concerning the non-specified creator in the intelligent design theory with the “Flying Spaghetti monster”. His letter states: “I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was he who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by him.” For the whole letter and comprehensive analysis of Pastafarianism see: http://www.venganza.org/. It should be obvious that Pastafarianism is nothing but a spoof of intelligent design. Actually, the creationists’ websites could sometimes be easily mistaken for a joke. See: http://www.creationism.org/.
Darwin himself was not an atheist. He said: "I cannot pretend to throw the least light on such problems. The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble to us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic." No one knows when or if the debate is ever going to come to an end. In the scientific community, evolution is constantly applied, giving rise to various interesting theories in the cognitive, psychological, biological, and neurological disciplines.