Darwin Letter Friday

Darwin on the exchange of letters: “It is seldom that one individual has the power giving to another such a sum of pleasure, as you this day have granted me.— I know not whether the conviction of being loved, be more delightful or the corresponding one of loving in return.— I ought for I have experienced them both in excess.”

Darwin and Vegetables

According to recent Cambridge University documents, Darwin loved his vegetables. So much so, that he paid more to his college dining hall to have them at meals.
Luckily, fresh vegetables today are inexpensive–a true luxury.
Read about it at BBC News >>

Darwin at 200

200 years ago today, Charles Darwin was born.
Who better to wish him a happy birthday than his own sister? There’s more family news [omitted] in the letter, but I was especially charmed by a middle-section about the only thing a certain young “Parky” remembers about uncle Charles.
Oh, and here’s a drawing of Darwin riding a [...]

Darwin is just fine with the Vatican

They’ve had a rocky relationship in the past, but the Vatican has admitted that Darwin’s theory of evolution is perfectly legitimate, and further, even identifies evolutionary theory at work in the writings of both Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.
An article in the Telegraph even points out that the church is downplaying Intelligent Design, discussing it as [...]

If you meet Darwin by the road…

…kill him.
Today’s Science Times devotes itself to all things Darwin. His 200th birthday is 2 days away!
My personal favorite, Carl Safina’s essay entitled Darwinism Must Die So That Evolution May Live takes a stab at bursting the bubble of the cult of Darwin.

We don’t call astronomy Copernicism, nor gravity Newtonism. “Darwinism” implies an ideology adhering [...]