Its pretty much inescapable. Today it was exactly 200 years ago that Charles Darwin was born. 50 years later he wrote his masterpiece (the origin of species) which was to put an end to superstition and irrational belief about how we came to be. And with "we" I mean ALL of us, including the animals, plants, bacteria, virusses and all the other creapy crawlers.

 

But it didn't....  and that is why I feel that darwin would be severely unimpressed with what we did with the knowledge he gave us.

 

On this day everyone seems to have an opinion about Darwin. Scientists applaud him, Creationists distrust him and fundamentalists dispise him. No one seems to be concerned about how the man would view us today. And I think it is undenyable that he would not be pleased. Lets review:

 

To me, religion is nothing more than a group of theories about the Universe and the origin of life. For instance: The judeo-christian belief-system would have you believe that the universe and the earth in all its splendor was created in no less than 6 days by a devine entity called "God". Furthermore, this eventful week took place approximately 6000 years ago. That's the theory! In science, one would then try and establish evidence to support the proposed theory. Other scientisis then challenge the hypothesis by depating its merit. And as the evidence in favor of the theory accumulates, the theory is deemed more credible. How much evidence it takes for a theory to be accepted as a truth is debatable. I feel that no theory could ever be proven 100%, no matter how much evidence there is. Take, for instance, the three laws of sir Isaac Newton. There is a world of evidence to support it, but there is no way of knowing for sure that every angle on the theory has been reviewed. Therefore, I prefer to state that the theory of Newton has been proven to be EXTREMELY likely. Now, back to our Judeo-christian friends. They propose the theory of the 6-day creation by God, yet they provide no evidence at all. If you challenge their theory, they react in an often hostile way. Religion has falsely obtained a position where it is unethical and politically incorrect to challenge their beliefs. They have created a false demand for respect. Its even been incorporated into almost every constitution. So you are not allowed to challenge the theory, but if you do... very VERY carefully...  the creationists will tell you that its simply TRUE because that is what they believe and that is what the bible says. Apparently, no evidence is required.

 

Do you see what religion did? First they propose a ridiculous theory, then they made it unacceptable to challenge that theory. And for those brave souls who do, the reason is given that the theory is simply true and that you don't need to worry yourself with evidence! I'm real happy the court system doesnt work that way! It is a system which represses critical thinking and it will never lead to any form of truth.

 

Darwin himself briefly studied theology at the University of Oxford but dropped out pretty quick. He went on to propose a theory which stated that all living beings on this planet came into being by the process of evolution by natural selection. It was one of the most beautiful ideas ever and it explained more than any other scientific theory. In a nutshell, natural selection is a process which "rewards" succesful mutations by having more offspring. Imagine a generation of beings being born. They all have the same DNA in their cells, exept for small random mutations. With every replication of a cell, the DNA is coppied and very small mistakes are made. These lead to ever so slight mutations. The beings with the mutations which are advantageous in the environment where they live will be more succesful and less likely to perish. These more succesful will eventually create more offspring, carrting the successful mutations into the next generation. The less succesful mutations die out with their less successful hosts. Now imagine this process for generation after generation for millions of years, and you start to get an idea of how species adapt to their environment. Adaptation is the key to survival. If a species cannot adapt, it will go extinct.

 

Creationists often state that something complex cannot come from something simple. For instance, human beings cannot evolve from simple 1-cell lifeforms billions of years ago. The reason why they state that so fiercefully is because the creation of complexity is something which only god can do. They can't have the idea floating around that anything simple can evolve into something complex, it would undermine gods devine power! To illustrate this they formulated an argument which is often illustrated by the analogy of "the whirlwind in a junkjard". Concisely put: creationists state that, for example, an eye is too complex to come into existence by chance. It is more likely that a whirlwind which blows through a junkyard accidentally assembles an entire Boeing 747 than it is for an eye to come into existence by mere chance. Or in even less words: the more complex something is, the less likely it is and so there is a devine intervention required to "design" it.

 

Obviously, the people who make this argument understand very little about evolution by natural selection. Natural selection has nothing to do with chance. Natural selection is a slow and gradual process of adaptation to outside influences. But lets just review their argument: if god created the eye, who created god? Remember: according to creationists it takes something complex to create something less complex. No complex thing can come from something simple, right? so god has to be more complex than an eye! And by their own argument, that would make god even more unlikely to come into existence than the eye itself. I have yet to hear a satisfactory reply on this paradox.

 

The theory of a god who created the the universe in 6 days is a poor theory for which there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever. Just like there is no evidence for ferries, zombies, goblins, astrology, the Zodiac, palm reading, telling the future by the drop of a handfull of chickenbones or the fortune-tellings of the old voodoo-lady by burning incents and squeezing the goats testicles. They are all irrational beliefs which have no credibility.

 

And what just blows me away everytime is how many people choose to abandon reason and believe in nonsense. Aren't we supposed to live in an enlightened era where scientific reasoning is adopted? Well, far from it. What pains me even more is that belief-systems such as astrology and the paranormal have a tendency to hijack terms from science and hammer them into something misty and shady. Terms like "energy" and "radiation" are often disgracefully misused to serve the purpose of the irrational. There is nothing mistique about energy other than the admiration for the wonderful complexity of the Universe and the role of energy in it.

 

Even now, in the 21st century, it seems perfectly acceptable to abandon reason. TV shows about the "paranormal" are abundant, horoscopes can be read in the most prestigeous newspapers and books on illogical means are sold by the millions. The irrational even dared to enter the realm of medicine and, at least here in the netherlands, health insurance will even cover your expenses when undergoing indian hot-stone aura-clensing therapy. Mind you, we're all paying for that through taxes. Every month, a part of my hard-earned paycheck is spent on medical treatments which have had no double-blind trials to proove their validity. It makes me mad and wants me to request the government pays me back for that!

 

So back to Darwin. What if Darwin was to see what the world today looks like. A world full of fundamentalists, illogical beliefs and dogma's from the middle ages. An age where science is often still mistrusted. Imagine that! Science has shaped today's life in so many ways! medicine, communications, the raising of the quality of life in almost every aspect. Yet some people choose to still mistrust reason and adopt superstition. What if Darwin saw people stating that the world is 6000 years old and that dinosaurs and man existed simultaneously. What if he saw how the irrational motivates our world leaders more than reason does?

 

I think he would say: "...but.. hang on?... didn't you get a copy of my book???"

 

~Jeroen Breukels