Darwin and atheism

[TeutonKnight]

Late in his life, Charles Darwin received a letter from an atheist author who wished to dedicate his new book to the great scientist. Darwin declined with this letter: "Though I am a strong advocate for free thought on all subjects, yet it appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity & theism produce hardly any effect on the public; & freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds, which follows from the advance of science."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2009/08/darwin_and_atheism.html

 

[Mling]

Well, to be fair, there are no "Darwinists." The theory of evolution has changed and...well...evolved quite a lot since Darwin's times, and his personal views are generally not considered relevant to the science.

But, I like psychology and history at least as much as the next person, and considering how somebody might view the continuation of their life's work is always interesting, from a psychological perspective.

I'm not going to cast a vote on what he'd think of Christian's arguments that Christianity and evolution are contradictory, as I don't know if he believed they were.

I think though, as his main goal was illuminating minds, he'd be pretty frustrated at the way a small but vocal group of religious activists has frightened schools into dumbing science down, and adulturating it, to protect children from the horrors of learning.

 

[Tenka]

BBC - Will & Testament: Darwin and atheism

 

[Mling]

lol...wow.

and here I wasted time trying to give a thoughtful response. I'm going back to studying for my hedonistic, secularist propaganda class. One of those crazy subjects that cares more about scientific procedure than religious influence. EMT training.

 

[Tenka]

Will Crawley is just making his version of the old "Darwin is the God of the atheists" line.
What Darwin thought about religion is no more than a curiosity, since, as time passed the religiously inclined were largely able to accept the reality of evolution and retain their beliefs beside as was seemingly impossible in Darwin's day.

 

[Tenka]

lol...wow.

and here I wasted time trying to give a thoughtful response.

Yeah, looks like everything TeutonKnight has posted recently has been a direct copy paste from that blog without acknowledgment.

 

[TeutonKnight]

It was an Email sent to me actually.

 

[MoonLancer]

how does that change anything?

 

[jayem]

Darwin is buried in Westminster Abbey. He's in the Scientists' Corner, near Isaac Newton, and right next to the astronomer Sir John Herschel. When I visited there, I stood right on his marker stone, and it was a great thrill. It's always seemed ironic to me that Darwin is buried in a place of honor in a church. But I can't decide which way the irony flows.

 

[LittleNipper]

Darwin is buried in Westminster Abbey. He's in the Scientists' Corner, near Isaac Newton, and right next to the astronomer Sir John Herschel. When I visited there, I stood right on his marker stone, and it was a great thrill. It's always seemed ironic to me that Darwin is buried in a place of honor in a church. But I can't decide which way the irony flows.

Might both be considered dead.

 

[Mling]

It was an Email sent to me actually.

So....you wrote that article, and then emailed it to yourself, and then quoted your email? That's why it's ok for you to post it like it's yours? Because it really is?

 

[JGL53]

Darwin was convinced of natural selection, not theistic selection. This included the human brain in all of its aspects.

At best he could only have been a deist, which means as far as the average Christian goes he might as well have been a precurser and to Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

 

[Axioma]

I've always hated the term Darwinism, as if the final word on evolution was spoken centuries ago and there has been no scientific progress made in that area since then. It's like calling all of physics Newtonism and debating the theological implications of Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration while working on a particle accelerator.

 

[Verv]

It is odd that people have interpreted ancient poetic Jewish meter as meant to be entirely based on fact, and have also overlooked that the words in Genesis say "Let the seas teem with fish" and "let the lands thrive with animals," seeming to say that God did not take the most direct role in the design of these animals.

It seems utterly irrelevant to me wht science says.

This trend came about because of empiricism and eventually reaching the point of the logical positivists of the 20th century that went out to convince people that we know nothing but through empiricism, in their efforts to destroy the rational mind and discredit the philosophies that they were not versed in.

 

[Andreusz]

It seems utterly irrelevant to me wht science says.

.

So you don't take medicine when you're ill, you step off high buildings, you constantly run into brick walls because it's only a scientific hypothesis that bodies cannot easily pass through other solid bodies, and you don't use the Internet or a cellphone, preferring to communicate by telepathy.

 

[Bombila]

Whether TeutonKnight is copy-pasting or not, Mooney and Kirschenbaum are two people with flawed ideas, a tendency to quote people out of context, and have been in an ongoing feud with many members of the scientific community for a couple years now. Anyone interested can search for their names and find dozens of reviews of their current book by scientists with whom they disagree.

 

[ragarth]

Whether TeutonKnight is copy-pasting or not, Mooney and Kirschenbaum are two people with flawed ideas, a tendency to quote people out of context, and have been in an ongoing feud with many members of the scientific community for a couple years now. Anyone interested can search for their names and find dozens of reviews of their current book by scientists with whom they disagree.

They also seem to have a burning fetish for PZ Myers, explicitly singling him out in their book, then sending him a copy to review.

 

[Bombila]

Yep, they really hate PZ and Jerry Coyne, among others. They were mentored by Matthew Nisbet, the so-called communication specialist (Framing Science), who's been feuding with most of the other SBers for ages.

 

[JGL53]

It is odd that people have interpreted ancient poetic Jewish meter as meant to be entirely based on fact, and have also overlooked that the words in Genesis say "Let the seas teem with fish" and "let the lands thrive with animals," seeming to say that God did not take the most direct role in the design of these animals.

It seems utterly irrelevant to me wht science says.

This trend came about because of empiricism and eventually reaching the point of the logical positivists of the 20th century that went out to convince people that we know nothing but through empiricism, in their efforts to destroy the rational mind and discredit the philosophies that they were not versed in.

The discredited methodology of Logical Positivism has nothing to do with evolution except, perhaps, for the few dozen or so logical positivists still around.

So your assertion is a straw man attack.

Evolution is a fac, proven by rational means and many lines of evidence - sort of like that spherical earth thing.

Prove otherwise, if you can.

 

[neutronium_alice]

I think though, as his main goal was illuminating minds, he'd be pretty frustrated at the way a small but vocal group of religious activists has frightened schools into dumbing science down, and adulturating it, to protect children from the horrors of learning.

Which is exactly why education ought to be taken out of the hands of democracy and the state.