February 12th

This day is one of extreme historical significance. The 16th President of the United States was born on this day in 1809 in Kentucky. He later moved to Indiana and finally found himself in Springfield, IL. He became a lawyer and state legislator. Finally he became the first Republican president in 1861. This man was shot at Ford's Theater in April 1865 by John Wilkes Booth after the South lost the Civil War. Yes, this man was Abraham Lincoln.

On the same day in the same year, but a whole ocean away in England another man was born. This man actually studied to be a doctor and clergyman and soon found himself as the naturalist of the "Beagle". The ship set sail in December of 1831 and finally returned in 1836. He travelled to South America and even the Galapagos Islands. Here he studied the finches and noticed the slight differences among the species. The "Beagle" circumnavigated the globe before returning to England. In 1859 he published On the Origin of Species. This man is one of the most celebrated and most despised men today even though he died in 1882. This man was Charles Darwin.

Charles Darwin is associated with the theory of evolution that it is also called Darwin's Theory of Evolution or even just Darwinism. However, we almost would be calling it Wallace's Theory of Evolution or Wallacism. Alfred Russel Wallace was also a British naturalist who independantly came to the conclusion that species evolved through the process of natural selection. Wallace sent Darwin a letter stating that he was going to publish his findings. This prompted Darwin to finish his book.

Another player in the field of evolution was Jean Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck had the idea that traits that were acquired in an animals lifetime would be passed on to the organism's offspring. An example would be if you cut off a rat's tail then its offspring would have short tails. This is not how evolution works and no scientist who studies evolution seriously would suggest as such. I recently read a book by Kenneth Poppe, an advocate of Intelligent Design, who suggested that Darwinists spread the idea that evolution works according to the ideas of Lamarck instead of Darwin himself. If you look at Dr. Poppe's book you can see that he has shows his true colors. He is trying to discredit evolution by misrepresenting facts in order to spread his own false creationistic beliefs. He wants to believe in god so evolution must be false. However, if you look at Richard Dawkins's books or Jerry Coyne's book "Why Evolution is True" you will see two examples of "Darwinists" not explaining evolution as Lamarck viewed it, but as Darwin viewed it using natural selection.

And we can test both ideas of evolution. No matter how many times we cut off a rat's tail, its offspring will never have offspring with shorter tails as a result. This we can test by actually cutting off a rat's tail and then breeding the rat. This is how and why Lamarckian evolution was proven false, by testing its predictions. Darwinian evolution using natural selection has been tested using the fossil record, DNA, and lab experiments (justs to name a few) and has not been proven false yet. Intelligent Design is not even science because it can be tested and it can not be falsified. I do believe evolution to be a fact, however if there was evidence against evolution (and creationists have not found any even though they claim they have, all they do is quote from the bible and misrepresent evolutionary facts while presenting no new facts or ideas of their own) and for a creator, I would change my mind. Claiming that there are gaps in the fossil record, that scientists disagree on certain aspects of evolution and that we don't know how life originated doesn't disprove evolution since all of these are commonly admitted to in the scientific community. Science uses evidence to help tell the story of human origins. When new evidence is found, the story changes. Creationists already have a set story and new evidence must fit into this story, if it doesn't it must be discarded. The rational for this is that god is testing the believers faith. What I see is a believer so desperate to believe in a god that they lie to themselves about the evidence. An example is the way that fossils have been laid down in the sediments of the earth. Evolution predicts that you would find simpler organisms followed by some more complex ones. Creationists must fit this information into their predetermined story. They do this by saying that after Noah's flood the animals were laid down in the order that we see from the fossil data. (The bible says nothing about the fossils being laid in any certain order. The reason for this is that the people who actually wrote the bible (and it wasn't god) didn't know about the fossils that later generations would discover.)

Another important player in the study of evolution and genetics was Gregor Mendel who studied the traits of peas. His findings were revolutionary and gave great insight into how traits are passed on from parent to offspring.
Anyway, on February 12th I will celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birthday because he was one of the greatest American presidents and is unlikely to be topped anytime soon. Plus, he gave his life for his country. He gave his life to keep the United States as one country and did what was ultimately best for the country, stopping the practice of slavery. Coincidently, slavery is condoned in the bible. I have not yet found a passage saying that slavery is bad. So, based on this issue alone I would not want to believe in the god of the bible.

However, more importantly I will be celebrating the birthday of Charles Darwin. He represents the truth of evolution and the lies the creationists tell themselves. So have a happy Darwin Day.