Mr. Darwin & Us
We in the Humanist Community like to celebrate Darwin Day on February 12th, his birth date, because we sense Darwin would be a kindred spirit. He expressed several qualities that we value, and I wish to comment on some of them.
First, he was a learner, and we hope to continue in his example. He was a scientific learner: a critical, discerning observer and recorder of reality, i.e., facts, details, and most importantly, patterns and their varying consequences. Witness his analysis of Darwin’s finches (check out the Wikipedia article on this subject).
Second, he could analyze and synthesize what he observed in a rational way. That is, he created good theory from reality. To me this is not just a mechanistic process using deductive and inductive logic, but it also has an enriching humanities aspect, sometimes involving analogical or even metaphorical reasoning – as compelling as a good story or poem, or an elegant proof of a mathematical concept. (Some balk at this.)
A third virtue of Darwin was his strong respect for authority, but in his case it was the authority that we hear in the Missourian’s curmudgeonly challenge, “Show me.” For Darwin, books of mystical tales, guarded by priests and other holy men, had no particular relevance in trying to learn and understand the world before us. He did not wish to be told what to believe because it says so in Genesis.
A fourth point about Darwin’s science is that his observational style and resources were not simply a matter of mere null-hypothesis testing. The history of scientific method is much richer than that, allowing for the exploration of broad hypotheses.
And certainly, the outgrowths of Darwin’s work in the fields of genetics and elsewhere are intriguing, and we humanists find studying and discussing these ideas fascinating and good fun! Again, there is a feeling that we in the HC and Darwin may be kindred spirits.
Jon Stephens
(And thanks, Bob Stephens, for stirring all this interest in Darwin Day a while back.)
For more information see:
http://darwinday.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Day
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roy-speckhardt/its-the-right-time-for-co_b_2535460.html