Happy Belated 200th Mr. Darwin!
I've been debating whether to do this post. While Charles Darwin is one of the most influential scientists ever, he's also arguably one of the most controversial. His ideas on evolution, specifically that we descended from simpler creatures and that other primates trace their lineages back to a common ancestor with us, are well-accepted by the scientific community, but they are hard to embrace by those who believe in a largely literal reading of the Bible. This conflict makes me sad. The large majority of the world's religions, even most forms of Christianity, have come to terms with evolution, finding no conflict between it and faith in a God who created mankind. From my viewpoint, I find the idea that people trace back to single-cell creatures one of the greatest miracles of all.
Despite the divisiveness of the topic, I felt the need to write this entry, primarily because we can't escape Darwin-mania here in Cambridge,where the man was a student. Just this week Prince Philip came to town to unveil a new Darwin statue and a few weeks ago Cambridge University had an amazing light show that featured Darwin (see the picture above of Darwin and the tree of life). My intern on Monday also visited the newly restored Down House, Darwin's home that some want to be a World Heritage site.
But the real reason for this post is I wanted to share the amazing evening I had Monday night listening to Baba Brinkman, a Canadian hip-hop artist who is doing rap songs about evolution.I went in skeptical but left his show hugely impressed. If you follow the link, you can read my review of the show and can also see lyrics, listen to,or watch videos of songs with titles such as Natural Selection. Even if you don't like rap, take a look--he's worth it. But if you don't like evolution, be warned that Baba doesn't take it easy on creationism or intelligent design.
--JT
