It’s Darwin Day, and time to celebrate science and the beauty of observable, provable reality. But, yet, old myths, and bad policy on based on them, seem as strong as ever — at least in my neck of the woods.
Though I love science, I’m tired and uninspired at the moment, so just some interesting notes and links.
Americans United Darwin Day slide show and audio presentation by AU prez Barry Lynn.
John Lynch gave a talk on “Was there a Darwinian Revolution?” at the Sam Noble Museum and reports say 300 attended. He may post photos at the link, so check back.
At Pharyngula I guess every day is Darwin day, but today they made a special effort to poke fun at the denial movement, with cartoons, and a new post in the series called “Things that make creationists look stupid” all about the appendix.
Google made a special image for the anniversary like they do for Halloween, July 4 et. al.
And Gallup polled Americans about whether they believe in evolution, and only 39% say they do. Why don’t they poll about who believes in the theory of gravity? Jesus, help your people!
Update:
Via Yellow Dog at They gave us a republic …
Four thousand miles away from a tiny log cabin in the Kentucky woods, another Great Emancipator was born 200 years ago today.
Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, corrected a 250-year-old injustice and set the nation on the path to the Inaguration of President Barack Obama.
But Charles Darwin freed human minds from the tyranny of religion, crowned two centuries of the Enlightenment, and ushered in the era of scientific reason.
The link is to the Smithsonian’s page on Darwin. How could I have overlooked that?