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Darwin Day is a celebration of Charles Darwin's birthday, the theory of evolution and science in general. This year marks his 210th birthday and 160 years since the publication of The Origin of Species. Those looking to celebrate or learn more about Darwin and evolution will find a wealth of events going on, or if you'd rather not leave the house, try a Darwin Day card with designs generated by simulated evolution.
Recently, an important finding in man's evolution was announced; the so-called Missing Link was confirmed. Australopithecus Sediba fossils were found in 2010 but it took a decade of research and debate for scientists to confirm that this was indeed the missing link that connects man's evolution in an unbroken chain back to primate ancestors.
Not everyone is down with Darwin. The Pew Research Center reports, "In spite of the fact that evolutionary theory is accepted by all but a small number of scientists, it continues to be rejected by many Americans. In fact, about one-in-five U.S. adults reject the basic idea that life on Earth has evolved at all." In Indiana, senator Dennis Kruse introduced a bill that would, among other things, "require the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life, including creation science."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Monday February 11 2019, @05:20PM (4 children)
How do you figure that's magical thinking? We celebrate Washington's birthday, despite the fact that the U.S. isn't any more or less free or democratic than on any other day of the year. We celebrate M.L. King Jr. day, despite the fact that racism isn't any more or less solved than on any other day. We celebrate Christmas, despite the fact that the legends of Christ are no more or less true on Christmas than any other day.
The point of such celebrations is to honor significant individuals, not invoke some sort of magic. Darwin didn't make evolution any more or less real, but he *did* dramatically improve our understanding of it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @06:02PM
I chalked it up to one of those high functioning disorders, finding logical faults when totally unnecessary.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday February 11 2019, @06:46PM (2 children)
The real irony is the holiday is usually not "celebrated" on his actual birthday for various federal holiday scheduling weirdness.
Some dude's birthday was roughly around this week, so we'll get Monday off.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:02AM (1 child)
Seem pretty par for the course - I seem to recall that Christmas is off by at least a few weeks, no matter how you count it. (plus several years, leading to the *real* irony that Jesus was born several years B.C.)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:08PM
There's also strange social politics and attitudes in play.
Like when did the USA become independent?
The continental congress voted to be independent in a theoretical sense on Jul 2.
The specific document was voted on Jul 4
Mythologically it was signed on Jul 4 but historians think it was signed around Aug 2 by most signers although a tiny handful (like the author himself, for example) claimed to sign it right after the approval vote on Jul 4.
Fighting now foreign troops ended in Oct of 81, but they had a metric shitton of troops trapped here for years
The official fight ended on Sept 3 1783
So when did America become independent?
I guess our culture says it happened when we agreed on a written "contract" not when we decided we were in general, not when we won the last big battle, not when the treaty ended the official war, its kinda interesting WHY we celebrate Jul 4 when it was a pretty minor event in the grand scheme of things.