Julian2 Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 THE Church of England will make an official apology to naturalist Charles Darwin for criticising his famous theory of evolution. Coming 126 years after his death, the church's apology will focus on how wrong it was for senior bishops in the past to misunderstand and attack Darwin's theory about man being descended from apes. Senior church officials will post the apology in the form of an article written by the Reverend Dr Malcolm Brown on the church's website tomorrow. "Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth (in 1809), the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still,'' the article says, according to extracts printed by The Mail on Sunday newspaper. Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Any reponse from Darwin yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faustian Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 H5N1? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTO Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Nasty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Hi, US churches and creationists take note. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted September 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Where do the Catholics stand on this now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Actually, I don't recall if Darwin applied evolution to humans. Seems to me it was Huxley who did that. Need to check. Off to see the Wiki ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Yep, he did. << He included mankind in his speculations from the outset, and on seeing an ape in the zoo on 28 March 1838 noted its child-like behaviour. >> However ... << He was always insistent that he was agnostic and had "never been an atheist" >> << In a letter to a correspondent at the University of Utrecht in 1873, Darwin expressed agnosticism: "I may say that the impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for the existence of God; but whether this is an argument of real value, I have never been able to decide. I am aware that if we admit a first cause, the mind still craves to know whence it came from and how it arose. Nor can I overlook the difficulty from the immense amount of suffering through the world. I am, also, induced to defer to a certain extent to the judgment of many able men who have fully believed in God; but here again I see how poor an argument this is. The safest conclusion seems to me to be that the whole subject is beyond the scope of man's intellect; but man can do his duty." >> Nothing like covering your bets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Where do the Catholics stand on this now? Never mind the Catholics. The mad mullahs would like to dig up his body and behead it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mongon Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain September 5, 2008 | Issue 44â?¢36 DAYTON, TNâ??A steady stream of devoted evolutionists continued to gather in this small Tennessee town today to witness what many believe is an image of Charles Darwinâ??author of The Origin Of Species and founder of the modern evolutionary movementâ??made manifest on a concrete wall in downtown Dayton. "I brought my baby to touch the wall, so that the power of Darwin can purify her genetic makeup of undesirable inherited traits," said Darlene Freiberg, one among a growing crowd assembled here to see the mysterious stain, which appeared last Monday on one side of the Rhea County Courthouse. The building was also the location of the famed "Scopes Monkey Trial" and is widely considered one of Darwinism's holiest sites. "Forgive me, O Charles, for ever doubting your Divine Evolution. After seeing this miracle of limestone pigmentation with my own eyes, my faith in empirical reasoning will never again be tested." Added Freiberg, "Behold the power and glory of the scientific method!" Since witnesses first reported the unexplained markingâ??which appears to resemble a 19th-century male figure with a high forehead and large beardâ??this normally quiet town has become a hotbed of biological zealotry. Thousands of pilgrims from as far away as Berkeley's paleoanthropology department have flocked to the site to lay wreaths of flowers, light devotional candles, read aloud from Darwin's works, and otherwise pay homage to the mysterious blue-green stain. Capitalizing on the influx of empirical believers, street vendors have sprung up across Dayton, selling evolutionary relics and artwork to the thousands of pilgrims waiting to catch a glimpse of the image. Available for sale are everything from small wooden shards alleged to be fragments of the "One True Beagle"â??the research vessel on which Darwin made his legendary voyage to the Galapagos Islandsâ??to lecture notes purportedly touched by English evolutionist Alfred Russel Wallace. "I have never felt closer to Darwin's ideas," said zoologist Fred Granger, who waited in line for 16 hours to view the stain. "May his name be praised and his theories on natural selection echo in all the halls of naturalistic observation forever." Despite the enthusiasm the so-called "Darwin Smudge" has generated among the evolutionary faithful, disagreement remains as to its origin. Some believe the image is actually closer to the visage of Stephen Jay Gould, longtime columnist for Natural History magazine and originator of the theory of punctuated equilibrium, and is therefore proof of rapid cladogenesis. A smaller minority contend it is the face of Carl Sagan, and should be viewed as a warning to those nonbelievers who have not yet seen his hit PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Still others have attempted to discredit the miracle entirely, claiming that there are several alternate explanations for the appearance of the unexplained discoloration. "It's a stain on a wall, and nothing more," said the Rev. Clement McCoy, a professor at Oral Roberts University and prominent opponent of evolutionary theory. "Anything else is the delusional fantasy of a fanatical evolutionist mindset that sees only what it wishes to see in the hopes of validating a baseless, illogical belief system. I only hope these heretics see the error of their ways before our Most Powerful God smites them all in His vengeance." But those who have made the long journey to Dayton remain steadfast in their belief that natural selectionâ??a process by which certain genes are favored over others less conducive to survivalâ??is the one and only creator of life as we know it. This stain, they claim, is the proof they have been waiting for. "To those who would deny that genetic drift is responsible for a branching evolutionary tree of increasing biodiversity amid changing ecosystems, we say, 'Look upon the face of Darwin!'" said Jeanette Cosgrove, who, along with members of her microbiology class, has maintained a candlelight vigil at the site for the past 72 hours. "Over millions of successive generations, a specific subvariant of one species of slime mold adapted to this particular concrete wall, in order to one day form this stain, and thus make manifest this vision of Darwin's glorious countenance," Cosgrove said, overcome with emotion. "It's a miracle," she added. http://www.theonion.com/content/news/evolutionists_flock_to_darwin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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