Happy Darwin Day to our friends across the pond!

[Lionel Mandrake]

It's already 12 February over there. Charles Darwin was born on this date 203 years ago. He might have become a country parson with an amateurish interest in rocks and beetles. Instead he went on a voyage of discovery and became a celebrated naturalist, prolific writer, and co-discoverer of natural selection as the principal mechanism of organic evolution.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Indeed, Happy Darwin Day!

We owe this man so much. He opened the doors to knowledge of our natural world, and for his work the world is grateful.

Thanks for the post!

[UnrepentantLiberal]

2. Yes, Happy Darwin Day everyone.

[Kali]

3. ...

more than 150 years since his masterwork and school boards are still trying to deny science and teach religion instead. and the majority of repuke presidential candidates dispute evolution as well, sad commentary on our ignorance

[Lionel Mandrake]

6. Yep.

These days, to be an acceptable republican candidate, one has to hate science.

[pink-o]

4. Both he and Lincoln born Feb 12, 1809

Both men battled depression, and were reluctant bringers of unprecedented changes in their respective societies--yet even with their own tumultuous personal conflicts, they each did what they knew was for the greater good--Darwin by publishing Origin, and Lincoln by signing the Emancipation Proclamation.

I admire Darwin greatly, and agree that we got here due to geographical and random conditions. But the similarities between two men born on the same day just delights the astrologers. Don't know, don't wanna speculate, but it is an interesting coincidence.

[Lionel Mandrake]

8. Yes, it's an interesting coincidence,

and that's all it is. Astrology is horseshit.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

5. That reminds me.

I watched Inherit the Wind a few weeks ago. A very good movie if you haven't seen it. They didn't mince words.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inherit_the_Wind_(1960_film)

[Lionel Mandrake]

7. It's a good movie, but it shouldn't be confused with a history lesson.

The Scopes trial was not a triumph for Darwinism. It was a publicity stunt intended to put Dayton, Tenn. on the map.

High school biology classes were dumbed down for decades following the Scopes trial. When I was in high school, in the 1950s, no biology teacher would dare to mention the word "evolution", let alone teach the theory of natural selection. Many biology teachers were creationists, and that was perfectly acceptable.



Clarence Darrow on the left, and William Jennings Bryan on the right, are getting along quite well with each other during the trial.

Read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial

[dimbear]

9. He owed it all to his dog, Snoopy.

Er, maybe it was some other beagle.

[Lionel Mandrake]

11. Heh heh.

The image above is a watercolor (lifted from Wikipedia) by HMS Beagle's draughtsman, Conrad Martens. Painted during the survey of Tierra del Fuego, it depicts the Beagle being hailed by native Fuegians.

For more info about this beagle, browse
http://www.aboutdarwin.com/voyage/voyage03.html

[LeftishBrit]

10. Thanks - and a Happy Darwin Day to you!

[Lionel Mandrake]

12. Thank you.

Darwin Day has dawned on the New World. It is now the morning of Feb. 12 here in sunny California.