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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: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 12 2019, @05:34AM (13 children)
You're missing the point. They have the absolute right to be as wrong as they care to be. Including in their voting patterns.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday February 12 2019, @07:33AM (4 children)
Perhaps. Only if they never, ever, tell anyone else about it. If they open their yapper, they are harming their family, their children, future generations, the Choctow Nation, residents of the greater Phillidelphia area, the world, and the progress of the sciences. So we are right to mock them, punch them in the face, ban them from twitter and peer-reviewed academic journals, commit them to instituions for the criminally insane, and if all else fails, make them watch Fox News until they die.
You are so wrong, Buzzy, so wrong that you would not recognize right if it bit right on the end of your line.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 12 2019, @11:54AM (3 children)
You're right, ari. Now where do you hang your sandals so we can come execute you for wrongthink again?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday February 12 2019, @07:33PM (2 children)
Silly Buzzard! This is what philosophers do! Get executed by idiots with stupid beliefs! Are you not aware that my pregenitor Pythagoras was forced to flee and live for years in a cave, because of the beliefs of Polycrates, the Tyrant of Samos? Ultimately he left for Italy, but then was murdered by townsfolk with stupid beliefs. And then there was Socrates, whom I assume you have heard of. Zeno? Soranus? Seneca the Younger, forced to commit suicide by the God-emperor, Nero, another with incorrect beliefs. Justin Martyr? Sopater, put to death by Constantine? Boethius? Ayn-al-Qużāt Hamadānī, "Shahāb ad-Dīn" Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardī and others killed by alleged Muslims with wrong views. Algernon Sidney, executed by Charles II, another king with silly beliefs. Giordano Bruno, burned at the stake by persons with very small beliefs. Antonio Gramsci, killed by the idiot Mussolini with his fascist beliefs.
Almost all these philosophers were killed by egoistic rulers, or conservative religious establishments, or in general the right-wing of historical politics. Not surprising that now the alt-right seeks to continue the fine tradition, having to as it were, "destroy western civilization in order to save it." (Ben Tre [wikipedia.org] strategy, from America's victory in Vietnam, engineered and operated by people with erroneous beliefs.)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:19AM (1 child)
Pythagoras, he invented triangles, right? Big fan. You're going to need to leave western civilization if you want to get executed though. Might I suggest China, Russia, or the Middle East?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:18PM
You are belying your sig, Oh Micturating Buzzard!
(Score: 2) by dry on Wednesday February 13 2019, @04:38AM (7 children)
And others have the absolute right to attempt to change their voting patterns, including by pointing out how wrong they are.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:23AM (6 children)
Absolutely. That's the entire purpose behind the first amendment. Our founders thought it was exceedingly less shitty to convince others by reasoned or even heated argument than by seeking to impose your will upon others. Check again which is being called for here by the anti-theists.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by dry on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:41PM (5 children)
The first amendment was just about the Federal government overriding the States rights to impose their wills on others. It was pretty pointed that only Congress was limited by the 1st. We're talking about a country that embraced slavery and theft of land.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 15 2019, @03:09AM (4 children)
Get some context on your butthurt. Europe gave the Americas over a hundred and fifty years before there even was a United States. Less than a hundred years after freeing ourselves, we also freed the slaves. Now we give preferential treatment to descendants of slaves so far removed from it that their grandparents never met anyone who was previously a slave.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by dry on Friday February 15 2019, @04:07AM (3 children)
The Colonists reacted pretty strongly about the Royal Proclamation of 1763, between it allowing Catholics to participate in government and the King stating that all his subjects were equal, so don't steal or otherwise settle land east of I forget exactly where, one of the seeds of revolution were planted.
What happened in the middle of the 19th century doesn't take away the fact that while your Constitution said everyone was equal, it also valued a slave as 3/5ths of a free man and those rights in the Bill of Rights that referred to persons didn't include slaves. Basically right from the beginning, the founding principles were ignored when convenient and today, Congress passes laws limiting speech, laws infringing on the right to bear arms and Congress people push for religious laws and appoint Justices based on religion rather then capability.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 15 2019, @11:57AM (2 children)
So you're objecting to people hundreds of years ago not having culturally evolved to modern ethical standards, yes? Guilt is not hereditary and you'd be extremely hard pressed to find any civilization in history that didn't come from one far more barbaric and less ethically sound by today's standards. You should probably back up and punt on this particular line of argument.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by dry on Saturday February 16 2019, @04:31AM (1 child)
I was objecting to this statement,
and the fact that their actions were in disagreement of their words.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:18AM
Oh, you're demanding absolute perfection of anyone to see the merit in them then. Roger.
Dude, nobody's perfect. Don't even look for it because you will always be disappointed. Especially don't look for perfection by today's standards in men who lived over two hundred years ago. Societal values and mores were nothing like they are now. It's perfectly acceptable to consider someone a great human being without approving of their every thought and deed (especially in massive hindsight); they need only have done something worthy of calling great.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.