Word: darwins
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Fans of evolution have reason to celebrate. The year 2009 is both the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, which formally laid out his theory of evolution. Darwin’s discovery revolutionized the field of biology and laid the groundwork for countless future discoveries in anthropology, psychology, and medicine. Chances are, you found out about Darwin’s birthday well before reading this, because his face has been everywhere this winter, from the cover of National Geographic to the Queen?...
...evolution skeptics have reason to cheer as well, because the celebration of Darwin’s work among scientists and in the media will likely reignite the debate over whether evolution or creationism should be taught in schools. Creationists will point out that the Darwin love-fest among scientists amounts to little more than devotion to a religious leader, reinforcing the views of the nearly half of Americans who don’t believe in evolution anyway. The display in the Science Center prepared by the UK-based Darwin 200 in February seemed to anticipate this debate...
...between evolution and intelligent design and then encourage public schools to “teach the debate.” But among the most damaging tactics is to refer to those who accept evolution as Darwinists, because it feeds off the sense of awe many scientists genuinely feel toward Darwin. American creationists use it to imply that believers in evolution form little more than a religious sect, owing irrational fealty to a charismatic spiritual leader. It doesn’t help that the term Darwinism is actually used by scientists, although only to differentiate between early evolutionary hypotheses...
...idea that scientists have an irrational reverence for Darwin is false. His work is seen as incomplete at best: Darwin knew nothing about genes or DNA, and yet today it would be impossible to teach evolution without discussing them. Further, although Darwin developed his theory first, it was Alfred Wallace’s independent conclusions that finally spurred Darwin to publish his findings...
...Still, many scientists continue to honor Darwin, certainly out of honest admiration but perhaps also to reinforce the significance of his findings on evolution. But too much praise gives the general public the impression that scientists are all a bunch of Darwin-worshippers. It’s bad enough that books have just been published with titles like Darwin’s Sacred Cause by Adrian Desmond and James Moore, assessing Darwin’s abolitionist tendencies, or Angels and Ages, by Adam Gopnik, which compares Darwin to Lincoln. Worse, these views are often evangelized in the popular press. Even...