Random Darwin

Been doing a lot of reading on Darwin recently. Fascinating dood. Witty, intelligent and at times charming in his 19th century naiveté. Though I should point out that he could be devastatingly direct and painfully insightful

Some Quotes from Darwin on religion:

Letter to Asa Gray September 17, 1861

Your question what would convince me of Design is a poser. If I saw an angel come down to teach us good, and I was convinced from others seeing him that I was not mad, I should believe in design.

Autobiography of Charles Darwin (1958) p.87

Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted even for a second that my conclusion was correct. I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlasting punished.
And this is a damnable doctrine.

From his earliest writings to the end of his life religion played a role in shaping how he presented his theories and how they were received. Early on Darwin made a conscious decision to 'Stick to the Facts' in presenting his notes and theories. To avoid colouring his work (in particular the reception of it) with any religious interpretation, positive or negative. The above quotes were from personal letters and notes, but not from the scientific papers he published.

This later went on to become a large part of the modern approach to scientific research. Not only is it politic and somewhat sensitive and respectful of others beliefs, it also makes for better science. Clear, unambiguous documentation of experiments. Theories based only on repeatable, demonstrable evidence from those experiments. This is the foundation of trust and verification that enables science to work. Everybody can read the documentation and repeat each step if they have doubts. There is no need for a 'Leap of Faith'.

I doubt Darwin envisioned the scientific future he created with that simple political decision. I also find it sadly ironic that he and his work, more than a century after his death, is at the centre of the debate(battle) between religion and science. A conflict he consciously tried to keep from being a part of.


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Happy Birthday Darwin: You haven't changed a bit

Today is the 200 year anniversary of Darwin's (and Lincoln's) Birth. There are celebrations going on all over the world, and some great collections of information on Darwin are out there.

One little known commonality between the two great men, beyond their birth, was their view on Slavery.
To Quote Darwin.
“I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernamabuco, I heard the most pitiful moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate."
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Lincoln is famous for his role in ending slavery within the US, and now the impact of the slave trade on Darwin's theories is examined in a recent book.

While Darwin hasn't changed much since his death (funny that), Evolutionary Theory certainly has grown since he first proposed it. The addition of Genetic Science has taken our understanding of Evolution to places that Darwin never suspected. On that note, here is some of the latest Science on the Evolution of Humans (Homo Sap) and the disappearance of the Neanderthals. Through reconstruction of the Neanderthal genome researchers have determined that there was little, if any interbreeding between the two species.

One thing we did have in common, however, was the same variant of the FOXP2 gene known to play a role in speech. So it's possible that we communicated, but in the end, some 30,000 years ago, they ended as a race and we remained. Intellectually it's easy to say our ancestors (Cro-Magnon) were smarter, more able hunters, and better suited to the environment than Neanderthal was. Emotionally though I have to wonder what the reality of "Survival of the Fittest" was between two species so similar that they may have shared languages or even cultures if not beds.



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