Amen for Darwin and his famous book
A Clear View
Posted By Glen Hallick
Posted 2 months ago
This past Tuesday marked a milestone in science - the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origins of the Species by Charles Darwin.
After about 20 years of study, Darwin formulated his theory of evolution based on natural selection. His 1859 book caused a huge uproar among the religious community and still does today.
Many religious leaders at the time utterly refused to comprehend the idea we humans evolved and did so from a lower species. To them the Holy Bible was all they needed and to them scripture was infallible. Darwin's book was part of a process demonstrating otherwise.
Other more enlightened religious leaders saw the book a logical explanation of how life on this planet came about.
Now Darwin's book wasn't the be-all-end-all of evolution. During the last 150 years we made a great deal of progress. We know more of our origins on Earth, with scientists finding skeletal remains of early humans and other forms of life, including dinosaurs that long preceded humankind.
Some Four Billion-Years-Old
Given the ages of some of these bones are estimated to be at least tens or even hundreds of millions-years-old, it's hard to believe there are some people who still think our world is a miniscule fraction of that age. Yet scientists have estimated our planet to be approximately four billion years old, perhaps more.
And there are Creationism and its highly politically correct brethren known as Intelligent Design. In short, the idea being God or a god concocted everything on the Earth.
My take on this? There is a deep seeded opinion among some Creationists that in no way whatsoever could we superior humans have ever evolved from something lower.
In other words, that feeling of superiority leads people to be repulsed at the fact we evolved from ape-like creatures, the same as monkeys.
Such arrogance towards Evolution is quite similar to the arrogance towards our environment.
The belief is, we humans being so superior can do anything we want to this world. And should good science get in the way then good science be damned.
The debate between Evolution and Creation won't be settled any time soon.
Stubbornness will keep that debate going, thanks to a steadfast unwillingness to evolve.
But least Darwin and his fellow evolutionists can be thanked for showing us a path toward enlightenment. Amen for that.
Lastly, kudos to Vision TV for airing a couple of versions of Inherit the Wind this week. I'm especially fond of the Spencer Tracy version.
